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Council priorities: staff maps recovery work plan, ULI recommendations and $400M HMGP application
Summary
City staff presented a cross-departmental work plan to advance council priorities — people, housing, infrastructure, environment and economy — highlighted Urban Land Institute recommendations, and said the city has applied for about $400 million in FEMA HMGP funds for major resilience projects including North Fork water-system work.
Assistant City Manager Jay Dennis told the Policy, Finance and Infrastructure Committee the city is organizing an FY25–26 work plan that aligns council priorities with recovery projects and ongoing operations to build long-term resilience.
"Creating and implementing a vision of a more resilient future requires focus and coordination," Dennis said, summarizing staff efforts to map projects to council goals and to track progress through an organizational work-plan framework.
Dennis summarized inputs to the plan, including the Buncombe County long-term recovery plan, Urban Land Institute recommendations and the city’s capital budget. Staff said the county’s final draft was shared Sept. 16, the public-comment period has closed, and the city will be asked to adopt the city-specific section at the Nov. 18 council meeting.
Dennis also discussed a series of Urban Land Institute recommendations that staff have distilled into 11 high-level actions, from building a legacy of resilience to acting swiftly on priority projects, and said staff will return with specific implementation plans.
On funding, staff said the city has applied for approximately $400 million in FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, with a major focus on North Fork water-system resilience among the most costly projects. Dennis said HMGP is one of multiple funding sources staff are sequencing with state, EDA and CDBG-DR dollars to advance design and construction.
Councilors pressed staff about the development-liaison position — an internal ombudsman to help businesses and property owners navigate permitting, flood, FEMA and zoning requirements during rebuild — and whether the FAST team is still functioning. Assistant City Manager Ben Woody said the FAST team remains active and the liaison role will help shift the team’s focus to rebuild-phase, permitting-intensive work.
Staff emphasized that timelines for federal programs such as HMGP can be lengthy and that staff are pursuing interim funding to advance design work while federal approvals proceed.
