Asheville committee reviews strategic 'toolbox' to guide disaster recovery economic spending

On May 11 the City of Asheville Planning, Economic Development and Environment Committee heard a proposal to build a tactical economic development strategic action plan intended to guide disaster recovery spending and increase the city's capacity to deliver recovery projects.

Rachel Taylor, the city's economic development division manager, told the committee the plan is meant to be a "toolbox, not a document" that produces deliverables throughout a phased process and helps the city define where it can have the most impact. Taylor said the city and regional analysis showed Western North Carolina experienced roughly $4.5 billion to $5 billion in direct economic losses and that Asheville faces "more than $240,000,000 in unmet business and economic needs." She said the work would include policy updates, incentive best practices, engagement with stakeholders, and a KPI dashboard to track implementation.

Taylor outlined four phases: a discovery and assessment phase (about three months, targeted to 2026) to establish baseline data and engage stakeholders; an operations and policy audit (about two months) to optimize internal workflows; a strategy-development phase (about two months, targeting summer 2027) to synthesize findings and test recommendations; and a final implementation and tracking phase (wrapping up the process in fall 2027) to provide tools for execution and monitoring.

Councilmembers praised the greater level of detail but raised concerns about sequencing and capacity. Councilwoman Kim Roney asked whether the plan's dashboard and metrics would duplicate existing partner datasets, such as Riverbird Research's monthly reports or the work of the Chamber and the Economic Development Coalition, and whether the committee had considered asking partners to host or maintain parts of the proposed dashboard to reduce long-term staffing costs. "I'm really wrestling with, is this the right time to use this funding? Do we have the capacity to truly do this when we don't even have the economic recovery funds on the ground?" Roney asked.

Supporters on the committee, including Councilwoman Sage Turner, said the initiative should be seen as more than a dashboard and as a way to add staff capacity and strategic clarity so the city can better time program development with roughly $35,000,000 in economic recovery funds that have been earmarked. Taylor and other staff said the process would explicitly coordinate with partners to avoid duplication and would identify opportunities to implement early recommendations if alignment emerges during the phases.

The discussion did not include a vote on adopting the plan. Staff said the next steps are to continue council engagement through facilitated sessions and return to the committee and full council with draft deliverables and recommendations for consideration.

The committee approved the April 21 minutes earlier in the meeting; no further formal actions were taken on the strategic action plan at this session.