24.03.2025 18.02

Language was simplified (NOFO scoring rubric changed to housing development proposal scoring)


New petition description:

The City of Asheville is set to receive $225 million in the form of the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Response (CDBG-DR). Sunrise Movement WNC and friends appreciate the opportunity to comment on the City of Asheville’s draft Action Plan for CDBG-DR funds. 

Our message is simple: We must aggressively use recovery funding to address the climate crisis and build back greener. The climate crisis makes extreme weather events more frequent and severe. Mitigating climate change will both decrease the risk of extreme weather events occurring in the future and make us more resilient when they do occur. Scientists have estimated that climate change may have increased the likelihood of rain by 20 times and increased the amount of rainfall by up to 50% during Helene.

While the draft plan mentions the City of Asheville’s pledge for municipal operations to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030, the City’s goal for the entire community to reach 100% renewable energy by 2042 is notably absent. Vitally, progressing towards the community-wide goal is what it takes to combat climate change and reduce our vulnerability to catastrophes like Helene. We must significantly change how we generate, store, and use energy and how we transport ourselves from one place to another. We are unlikely to see this level of federal investment again in the near future, so it is incumbent upon us to use CDBG-DR funds to protect our community from the effects of the climate crisis. 

Specific investments could include the following: 

• Housing: In addition to requiring that all housing built with grant funds meet HUD energy efficiency standards, we suggest requiring renewable energy generation and storage capacity. If this cannot be mandated, it should be incentivized via prioritization in NOFOhousing scoringdevelopment rubrics,proposal scoring, expedited permitting, or other means. New housing should take maximum advantage of recent zoning changes so more affordable housing is built in dense, transit-friendly areas. We should also allocate funds to make existing housing more resilient by funding initiatives such as Energy Savers Network to cover the costs of weatherization, electrification, and solarization for more low and middle income households. Any remaining funds could be used to further incentivize or subsidize renewable energy solutions for residents of any income level through programs such as Electrify Asheville-Buncombe County.     County.   

• Energy Infrastructure: We are pleased that electrical grid resiliency is mentioned in the plan. We would like to see concrete, funded commitments to rapidly increase renewable energy generation and storage in community and commercial/industrial settings. At a minimum, community hubs such as schools designated as disaster response centers should be equipped with solar powered energy storage. Broader investments in renewable energy generation and storage throughout the community should also be undertaken. These activitiesactions will both help residents maintain power during emergencies and contribute to a shift to renewable energy that lessens climate impact and future catastrophic weather risk.

• Transit Infrastructure: Transit is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, so modernizing transit is crucial. We are pleased to see improving public transit included, albeit generally, in the plan. We would like the plan to include specific, funded commitments to implement improvements to increase ridership such as adding new bus routes, doubling the frequency of service, and building park and ride facilities. We also recommend building electric vehicle charging infrastructure to enable rapid growth in EV ownership.

In addition to these specific asks, we urge the City to use funds to staff up adequately to ensure that climate justice initiatives are implemented at the scale needed, coordinated across sectors and initiatives, and conducted with robust community engagement.