This year, Buncombe County voters will have the opportunity to help shape the future of our landscape. With growing development pressure and increasing need for thoughtful conservation of imperiled natural resources, now is the time to invest in our future. That’s why Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy has endorsed the Open Space Conservation Bond and the Affordable Housing Bond on the November ballot.
Voting yes on these bonds will help protect the people and places we love.The Open Space Bond helps keep our drinking water safe, protects farmland and forests, and creates new public parks. The Affordable Housing Bond helps guide growth to the right places.
“Buncombe County is my home, and voting yes for these bonds is a way I can help engage in shaping the future of my community,” says Jess Laggis, SAHC’s Farmland Protection Director. “The design of the bonds program is elegant. Conservation and thoughtful infill housing are two sides of the same coin. By building affordable homes within our built environment, we alleviate development pressures in the surrounding areas – where our natural resources need to be conserved. Greenways then provide the connections between the two so that everyone has access to safe homes, clean drinking water, and beautiful outdoor spaces to recreate. Voting ‘yes’ for the Open Space and Affordable Housing bonds will help make sure Buncombe County is a place that looks and feels like home – both now, and for the future.”
The Buncombe County Open Space bonds will benefit all residents by providing funding to protect our streams, creeks, rivers, and drinking water; preserve ecologically sensitive areas, wildlife habitat, and scenic views; and to create greenways, trails, and parks for public use. The Affordable Housing bonds will help create modest, affordable housing for local residents with low and moderate incomes, who are being priced out of the housing market.
“Bond funding is a powerful way to unlock access to state and federal funds,” continues Jess. “The bond funds are designed to be a final piece of the funding puzzle for conservation, greenways, and affordable housing projects. When passed, the bonds will raise $40 million for affordable housing and $30 million for conservation and greenways in local funding – but those funds will be used to leverage millions and millions more in state and federal grants for our county. It would cost the average Buncombe County household 83 cents per week to generate the $70million for both bond funds. However, those dollars will be well spent, because they can leverage much more funding for the region!”
The last Buncombe County Open Space Conservation and Affordable Housing Bonds, passed in 2022, have delivered clear results = more than 2,500 acres conserved, more than 560 acres of new public recreational land (including a new county park: Deaverview Mountain County Park and Fairview Community Forest, which is now open to public recreation), and more than 960 new affordable homes for local residents who have low to moderate incomes.
In Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy projects, the Open Space bond leveraged federal and state funding for the county to purchase the 342-acre Deaverview Mountain property earlier this year. Funding from the bonds will be used to create park infrastructure for the public to enjoy the new park for generations to come. This fall, funding from the bond program leveraged state and private grants to permanently protect 336 acres of forested mountain ridges overlooking Lake Eden in Black Mountain, NC.
Want to know more about how the 2022 bonds are being used? Click HERE to view the informative, interactive dashboard.
If you live and vote in Buncombe County, we hope you will consider voting Yes on the Open Space Conservation and Affordable Housing bonds this fall. Your vote will help:
- Protect clean drinking water
- Preserve working farmland
- Conserve land and natural resources
- Create places for children and adults to connect with nature and enjoy outdoor recreation
