Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Recovery Planning topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Buncombe releases draft Helene recovery projects: 31 county initiatives across housing, safety and environment
Summary
County staff presented a draft set of 31 projects for the Buncombe Helene recovery plan spanning growth and development, economic development, community health, public safety, and energy/environment; staff asked commissioners for written feedback by Aug. 29 and planned to publish the draft for public comment on Sept. 16 with adoption targeted for
The county's recovery coordination team presented a draft list of 31 projects identified for Buncombe County's Helene recovery plan. Staff described the projects as county-level initiatives aligned to the county's strategic plan and grounded in input from the Envision Buncombe public survey and direct engagement with staff and subject-matter experts.
Projects span five focus areas:
- Growth and development: affordable housing projects on county-owned land (rental and ownership), code-of-ordinance updates to join FEMA's Community Rating System (CRS), commercial district revitalization (Barnardsville, Fairview, Swannanoa), down-payment assistance, home-repair funds, sewer extension/septic mitigation in unincorporated areas, and a Swannanoa small-area and resilience plan.
- Economic development: public art installations in storm-affected areas, skills-training and employment expansions (including partnerships with AB Tech and STEP programs), and small-business grants for impacted owners.
- Community health: food-security assessment and policy updates, a community memory archiving project with libraries, cultural-asset restoration for parks/libraries/community centers, mental-health training and supports, and a social-services emergency response plan.
- Public safety: community organization support, a community risk-reduction campaign, critical-facility hardening and upgrades, evaluation/procurement approach for disaster-response heavy equipment, a weather-resilient emergency operations center, an emergency shelter facility with steady-state uses, landslide mitigation (aligned with Burnett's work), natural hazard monitoring (e.g., stream gauges, landslide sensors), an after-action/preparedness plan, public-safety communications resilience (including 911 considerations), vehicle fuel and energy resilience, and a comprehensive community wildfire protection plan.
- Energy and environment: fleet and facilities restoration, planning and management for acquired open space (from buyouts), resiliency hubs that can provide power and services in disasters, and stream stabilization and flood-risk reduction.
Staff said the projects were evaluated against criteria including organizational alignment, community input from Envision Buncombe, necessity and risk reduction, cost and feasibility. The recovery team asked commissioners to review draft projects, provide feedback by the end of August (target: Aug. 29), and noted the draft will be shared with the public for comment Sept. 16 with adoption targeted for November.
Commissioners discussed alignment with growth-management goals (to avoid sprawl when extending sewer and water) and asked for additional detail on phasing; staff asked commissioners to read the draft closely and return comments to staff for incorporation before the public release.
