Asheville maps empty buildings
Asheville posted an inventory of abandoned buildings and is advancing an ordinance to manage them — the thread couples property lists with emerging rules aimed at reuse and safety. The municipal post drew local discussion about homelessness, preservation, and how to convert vacant stock into community assets (x.com).
Asheville has published a public inventory of abandoned buildings as City Council moves ahead with a new ordinance meant to secure some long-vacant properties. (ashevillenc.gov) City Council approved the ordinance on April 14 after staff said current rules leave a gap: the city often cannot act when a building is structurally sound but still attracts fires, trespassing, or other safety problems. (ashevillenc.gov) (wlos.com) Before the vote, staff told local media they had a running list of about 30 properties they would target under the new approach, including 16 residential buildings and 14 commercial ones. (wlos.com) (citizen-times.com) The city’s mapping and open-data tools already let residents inspect property and planning records, and the new inventory pushes that information into a more visible public conversation about which sites have sat empty for years. (ashevillenc.gov) (data-avl.opendata.arcgis.com) That debate has spilled into questions about what empty buildings are for. Neighbors and business owners told local outlets they want faster action on fire risk and trespassing, while officials and residents have also tied the issue to homelessness, stalled redevelopment, and whether older structures should be reused instead of left to decay. (wlos.com) (citizen-times.com) (avltoday.6amcity.com) The ordinance grew out of a March 26 Public Safety Committee discussion, where staff said North Carolina General Statute 160D gives cities a tool to remediate or demolish abandoned non-residential structures that pose health and fire hazards. The committee voted to send the proposal to the full council agenda for April 14. (archive.org) One property that has become a shorthand for the problem is the Mountaineer Inn on Tunnel Road. A Buncombe County judge entered a default judgment for the city on Feb. 4, and Asheville began cleanup work there this spring after reporting repeated sanitation and safety problems. (citizen-times.com 1) (citizen-times.com 2) Not everyone on council said the new rules will change much right away. Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley said she feared the measure was “performative,” and Mayor Esther Manheimer said the city was adopting a tool it might not use for “two or three years” because no dedicated funding has been set aside. (wlos.com) For now, Asheville has paired a list with a legal mechanism: show residents which buildings are sitting idle, then decide which ones the city can actually force toward cleanup, fencing, reuse, or demolition. (citizen-times.com) (wlos.com)
