The week of July 27 was busy for City of Asheville staff and community members as they met with national experts in economics, land use, and sustainability, who were in town as part of the ULI Advisory Services Program. ULI’s 9-member panel spent five days in Asheville, touring the city’s hardest-hit areas, speaking with leaders from local business, neighborhood, and government organizations, conducting focused interviews with a variety of stakeholders, and compiling their research observations and recommendations into a two-hour presentation on Friday, August 1.
While the final report will be published later this year, the ULI panel shared some of their key insights and a list of recommendations for Asheville’s resilient recovery in their report, Asheville: A Legacy in Progress.
At its core, ULI’s vision for Asheville is one of resilience. The organization proposes an approach of integrated planning, where parks, water, housing, equity, and the arts are all woven together into a single, cohesive system.
To achieve this, the report urges Asheville to embrace:
- One Water principles to protect community spaces from flooding.
- Legacy parks that are both ecologically healthy and serve as vibrant cultural hubs.
- Civic collaboration that brings together artists, residents, nonprofits and government to work toward shared goals.
We want to thank the ULI Advisory Services Panel for their time, expertise and support as our community navigates recovery together. The final report and recommendations will be published later this year on ashevillerecovers.org.