ASHEVILLE – Just one week after a rare joint meeting of Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, Mayor Esther Manheimer and county Chair David Gantt shared what issues they think will be the ones to watch in the coming year.
Speaking Wednesday at a Leadership Asheville Forum, Manheimer first pointed to Raleigh and how state legislators may vote on the issue of sales tax distribution in North Carolina.
As the law stands, about 25 percent of local sales tax money gets redistributed to other parts of the state, while the remaining 75 percent goes back to the local economy.
But a proposed bill would flip the distribution and shift the ratio to an 80/20 split, with 80 percent of sales tax being distributed statewide and 20 percent of it staying in the county where goods were purchased.
“That’s devastating for Asheville and Buncombe County because we are a tourism area that generates a lot of sales tax per capita, so we would see a loss of millions of dollars,” Mainheimer told the room of more than 50 people at the Asheville Country Club Wednesday. “You need to get on your computer and email all your legislators across the state that this is a bad idea.”
After failing in the state House earlier this week, the bill now sits in a House-Senate conference committee.
But there are concerns inside city limits, too.
Manheimer said another major issue Asheville will face is one that was discussed at length Tuesday night: short-term rentals.
Short-term rentals are homes that are rented out for less than 30 days when the owner or main resident is not present. Some of the listings posted on websites like Airbnb and VRBO meet that definition.
“Airbnb has flown their hootie-hoos down here to come meet with us, and that’s no accident. There’s a lot of business to be had down here,” Manheimer said.
More than 1,000 rentals were listed in Asheville Wednesday afternoon, according to a search on Airbnb’s website. Currently, short-term rentals are not allowed in certain parts of the city.
“I am very concerned that if we (legalize short-term rentals) — because of the number we have in our community — that we will dramatically change Asheville and change our community,” Manheimer said.
In Buncombe County, short-term rentals are not banned. However, Gantt said the county is watching the issue.
“In more rural areas, it’s not quite the problem, but we want to get ahead of it. We don’t want it to overwhelm our communities and your neighborhood and places where it’s not appropriate, and then try to come in after the cow’s already left the barn,” Gantt said.
Gantt said the priority for moving forward will be continuing to not only provide services to residents, but to make investments in the community that add value.
One of those projects Gantt said was much-needed was helping victims of domestic violence. In 2013, Buncombe County ranked second in the state for its domestic violence-related homicides.
That’s why the county has allocated $2.7 million to its domestic violence programs and its Family Justice Center, which will open later this year at 35 Woodfin St.
“Women and children who have been abused often have to tell their story 10 to 20 times to different people before there’s action about what to do about it,” Gantt said. “We are going to have, in Buncombe County, the best Family Justice Center in the United States of America.”
In addition to trying to protect the people of Buncombe County, Gantt said it will be imperative to protect the land of Buncombe County.
Currently, 17 percent of Buncombe County land has been protected through county preservation efforts and easements in national forests, parks and watersheds.
“We can’t buy the land but we can buy the development rights,” Gantt said. “We’ve been buying conservation easements and development rights so that a lot of farms, ridgetops and steep slopes are tied up and they’re not going to develop. They’ll look the same for your great-grandchildren as they look right now.”
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