Welcome to the City of Asheville

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Welcome to the City of Asheville Spring
Development Forum May 18, 2007 Gary Jackson,
City Manager
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• Development Trends Update
• Demographics Sam Powers
• Building Permits Activity Mark Case
• Comparisons Trend Report
• Zoning Activity Kimberly Hamel

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MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) includes
Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison
Counties
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Population Trends
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• Asheville Metro Economy Outlook
• Date 6/27/2007 Time 530PM to 630PM
• Diana Wortham Theatre 2 S. Pack Square
  Asheville, NC 28801

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REGIONAL TRENDSOne Two-Family Dwellings
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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FISCAL YEAR 2007
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1st Quarter 2007 VS 2006
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1st Quarter 2007 VS 2006
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Planning and Development Zoning Activity

• City of Asheville
• 2002 2007
• (YTD January to December)

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Small Scale Projects

• Level I Projects Staff Level Review
• New Commercial Projects 500 square feet up to
  35,000 square feet
• Multi Family Projects 3 units 20 units
• Changes of use to higher impact uses
• Renovations that exceed 50 of tax assessed value
  of the building

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Large Scale Projects

• Level II Projects
• Level III Projects
• Major Subdivisions
• Conditional Zoning/Conditional Use Zoning
• Conditional Use Permits

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Planning and Development Zoning Activity

• City of Asheville
• 2002 2007
• (YTD January to December)

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Technology Improvements May 18th,
2007Development Forum
Our quality of service, your quality of life
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Technology Improvements

• A focus on responsiveness to customers
• Acknowledgement that focused web systems are most
  useful to citizens
• City Systems
• Geographic Information Systems
• Community/Customer Information Systems
• Financial Information Systems
• Human Resources Information Systems

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The State of Geographic Information Systems and
Website
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Web site improvements
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Development Mapper
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The State of Other Information Systems
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Customer Community systems
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Upcoming GIS Public Access Applications

• Priority Places
• Decision support and visualization tool for
  economic development
• Contracted with vendor for development and
  implementation
• Estimated completion Early Fall 2007
• Steep Slope Analysis Application
• Collaborative partnership with Buncombe County
  and UNCA/RENCI
• Analysis tool to determine applicability of steep
  slope ordinances to existing or proposed parcel
• Estimated completion Late Summer 2007
• Crime Mapper
• Visualization tool providing generalized
  statistics in a requested area or neighborhood
• Estimated completion Winter 2007/2008

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Service Enhancements Through Technology The Plan

• Use modern tools
• Expand our successful GIS implementation
  strategies to other systems
• Continue to offer services based on citizen and
  stakeholder input
• Do what we can with what we have model, with
  room for additional investments, requested in
  FY08 budget

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Resources and Backlog

• 6 to 8 month GIS project backlog will continue
  as we include other Information Systems
• Continue to accept long term projects and
  reprioritize per leadership requirements
• Utilize partnerships to leverage resources

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Minority Business ProgramOffice of the Economic
DevelopmentCity of AshevilleBrenda Mills,
Minority Business Program Coordinator
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Purpose of the Minority Business Program

• To identify minority and women owned firms who
  can supply goods services to the City of
  Asheville.
• Educate these firms on local government
  contracting purchasing policies to increase the
  opportunities for bidding and contracting.

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Purpose of the Minority Business Program

• Partnering with other business service providers
  to provide additional business development
  training.
• Counseling minority and women business owners on
  their objectives in doing business with local
  government.

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• Management Initiatives
• Cost Savings Initiatives Ben Durant

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BUILDING SAFETY

• Reorganized the Development Services Center staff
  with 2 residential and 2 commercial facilitators
  handling a 27.9 increase in permits for 2006 vs
  2005
• Established one phone number to request all
  residential inspections, computer input done by
  clerical staff, allowing inspectors to be in the
  field before 9 AM

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BUILDING SAFETY

• Commercial inspectors parking City vehicle at
  remote government site allowing commercial
  inspectors to begin making inspections by 8 AM
  rather than 930 AM
• Improved small commercial remodels from 23.7 to
  10.9 days by assigning one plan reviewer and
  commercial branch supervisor performing site
  verifications.

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Water Resources

• Treatment Plant upgrades savings of 7,000,000 at
  North Fork and 5,000,000 at Bee Tree by changing
  to alum additive instead of higher filtration
  process through Asset Management Program
  planning.

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Water Resources

• In-house study and research which up-rated Mills
  River Plant from 5 Million Gallons a Day (MGD)
  plant to a 7 MGD plant, which saved over 175,000
  from cost estimate from consultant.
• In-house construction and patch paving crew force
  account created to do small projects at an annual
  savings of 900,000

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Planning Development

• Conducted numerous studies utilizing existing
  staff instead of consultants since 2003. These
  studies include the River Redevelopment Plan, the
  Shiloh Neighborhood Plan, and the Merrimon Avenue
  Zoning Study, and have resulted in over 175,000
  in savings.

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General Administration

• By purchasing an automated content management
  system and training existing employees on how to
  use it in deploying a new City web site, City
  employees maintain our Web pages and eliminate
  the need for a full-time Web master.

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• Regulatory Update
• Storm Water Management Chad Pierce
• UDO Shannon Tuch

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• Stormwater, Erosion Control Floodplain Update
• Chad Pierce, P.E.
• Stormwater Services Manager

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• UDO Update
• Shannon Tuch, Assistant Director
• Planning Department

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Amendments

• BIG
• SMALL

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BIG Amendments

• Steep Slope
• Landscape
• Mixed Use District
• Gated Communities
• Level III Thresholds
• Subdivision
• Enforcement
• Adaptive ReUse

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SMALL Amendments

• Changes to Billboard Standards
• Changes to Urban Place
• Temporary Accessory Uses/Structures
• General Housekeeping

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Amendments

• (Still to Come)
• Consolidated Zoning Districts
• Changes to River District
• Changes to Parking, Loading, Access
• Changes to TRC Rules and Regs
• Lighting
• Signs

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Amendment Schedule
www.ashevillenc.gov Projects Initiatives UDO
Updates Schedule
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Speakers Series

• Presented by the Asheville Downtown Association
• Co-Sponsored by the City of Asheville Office of
  Economic Development
• Quality Forward
• Thursday May 24th 2007 530 pm
• Asheville Community Theatre
• The Importance of Downtown/Urban Design and
  Planning
• Speaker Ed Starkie, Urban Advisors

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Todays presentation is available
at www.ashevillenc.gov Spring 2007
Development Forum Presentation
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City Managers Comments Gary Jackson, City
Manager
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Thank you for attending. Please complete
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