Asheville council continues debate on UDO changes to promote housing along transit corridors

City planning staff presented proposed Unified Development Ordinance text-and-map amendments on Feb. 6 designed to increase by-right housing capacity along transit-supportive corridors and mixed-use centers, and Council members agreed to continue the public hearing to March 11 to allow more outreach and mapping.

The amendments, presented by Chris Collins of the City of Asheville Planning and Urban Design team, would raise development-review thresholds so larger attached-residential projects could be approved administratively rather than through conditional zoning, eliminate minimum automobile parking requirements along targeted corridors, and relax some district-specific building-size limits while keeping existing height caps. Collins said the baseline change would allow a single-use residential project up to 100,000 square feet to proceed as a level-2 (staff-level) review, and a mixed-use residential project up to 150,000…