Rachel, a county staff member, previewed recommendations from the passive recreation lands subcommittee ahead of a Board of Commissioners meeting next Tuesday. She told the committee the passive recreation queue currently sits at about $17.5 million and that the subcommittee plans to recommend seven projects totaling roughly $4,370,000 for Board approval.

Rachel said that if those recommendations and conservation easement requests proceed, approximately $5,600,000 would remain available from the county’s $30,000,000 open-space bond for future cycles. The subcommittee also recommended the Board consider holding some funds for projects that are not yet ready and for potential county-led projects that may need additional planning and design.

On the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), Rachel said Buncombe County is a sub-applicant with the state and that the county has received 429 total HMGP applications, 277 of which seek property acquisition. She said staff have signed and returned three batches of property lists to the state—two smaller batches and one larger batch of more than 150 properties returned just this month—for a total of 206 properties processed to date.

Committee members discussed setting aside roughly $5.5 million for county-led projects and recalled that Buncombe County previously used a competitive evaluation process when directing $51,000,000 in ARPA funds; Rachel said a similar evaluation process could be used if county-led projects receive bond funding.