Another $24 million could be on the way to support Hurricane Helene recovery in Buncombe County.
Two funding applications, unanimously approved by Buncombe’s Board of Commissioners on Sept. 1, seek to rebuild county parks and provide roads for a proposed affordable housing development
. The money would come from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds being managed by North Carolina state government.As presented by Kevin Madsen, Buncombe’s Helene Recovery Officer, the $11.2 million parks project would address repairs that won’t be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Efforts such as streambank restoration and flood mitigation, he said, would make the county park system more resilient to future extreme weather.
During
public comment on the grant applications in August, several Swannanoa residents urged Buncombe to focus its efforts on Charles D. Owen Park, as reported by BPR. Asked about the park by the Citizen Times, Madsen said the county was still waiting to learn what FEMA would cover and would ask for additional state-managed funding at a later date. (A county survey on current plans for Owen Park is available online through Thursday, Sept. 10.)
The other application asks for $13 million to construct a new .65-mile access road, repair existing roads and build additional infrastructure at Ferry Road near Bent Creek. Madsen said those improvements would pave the way for a 645-unit affordable housing development on 137 acres of county-owned land. That development would also conserve over 70 acres along the French Broad River and include new public greenways and trails.
The Ferry Road project, said Madsen, “really ties back to our unmet need that we had 6,500 units of rental housing damaged during Helene.” Buncombe’s 2030 strategic plan calls for the county to support the development of up to 1,850 affordable rental units by the end of the decade.
Buncombe’s grant applications do not include a project, presented to the board Aug. 18, that would have purchased backup generators and batteries for critical facilities. Madsen told the Citizen Times that, after further review, the county had determined some of those sites were ineligible for funding because they were located in Asheville city limits. He said the county would revise the project and submit it for a future funding round.
After the board’s vote, Chair Amanda Edwards praised the projects as progress toward county priorities.
“I know we are really excited to see the parks come forward,” she said. “And from the affordable housing perspective, seeing some funds come to Ferry Road is exciting.”
The county will submit its funding applications to the state by Wednesday, Sept. 16. North Carolina’s notice of funding opportunity does not specify when grants will be awarded.
Daniel Walton is the City Government Watchdog Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at dwalton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County seeks $24 million for Helene recovery work
