Council approves conditional zoning for 203-unit affordable project at 50 Cox Avenue

Asheville City Council approved a conditional zoning request on April 28 for a seven-story mixed-use affordable housing project at 50 Cox Avenue that the county owns and Harmony Housing will develop. Planning staff described the proposal as a 1.6-acre downtown infill project with 203 affordable rental units, about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and an integrated parking deck totaling 121 spaces.

Will Palmquist of Planning and Urban Design described two technical modifications requested through the conditional zoning: a one-story storefront configuration along a portion of Cox Avenue where the downtown standards normally require two stories, and a reduction of required canopy preservation from 10% to 1.2% of the site. Staff recommended approval as consistent with the Living Asheville comprehensive plan.

Amy Gornfield of Harmony Housing spoke for the project team and confirmed that the design includes a green roof and space for future solar; she said the developer is "very open to accepting vouchers" but could not commit to a binding voucher allocation tonight because the housing authority is not currently able to issue a formal commitment. Project partners and county staff described an intended affordability mix and asked council to adopt 'best efforts' conditional language to allow flexibility as final funding and voucher arrangements are finalized.

Council's motion required that all units be affordable for a minimum of 30 years and set a detailed target mix as the project's implementation goal: 11 units at 20% AMI; 35 units at 30% AMI; 113 units at 60% AMI; and 44 units at 80% AMI. The motion directed the applicant to use its "best efforts" to meet that mix and to coordinate with the housing authority on voucher placement. Vice Mayor Antinet Mosley moved approval; council approved the request by voice vote with no roll-call recorded.

Neighbors and supporters both addressed council. Supporters told council that the project delivers dense, transit-adjacent affordable housing and will help reduce homelessness by adding supply near the transit station. Nearby residents asked for traffic and pedestrian-safety mitigations on Ravencroft Drive and Hilliard Street, requested that the transit-center overhang be reviewed by the Asheville Police Department for safety, and sought stronger clarity on voucher-priority operations and on-day shelter impacts.

Design and traffic notes in the record: the project team said the garage will split access (about 50 spaces accessed from Cox Avenue, 71 from Ravencroft) and that a traffic study found no significant intersection delays at the nearby nodes studied. The developer expects to advance an application to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) and to seek final technical review committee signoff this summer with construction documents and further design refinement to follow.

What happens next: the conditional zoning approval creates the land-use authority to proceed with funding applications, NCHFA review and final design. Council directed staff and the developer to continue coordination on voucher placement, traffic mitigation and safety design for the transit-center interface.