ASHEVILLE — The chair of the City Council economic development committee has said a moratorium on the city’s fast-paced hotel construction is likely, with the temporary ban lasting possibly a year.

The statement came July 25 from Councilwoman Julie Mayfield, chair of the council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee. The committee, made up of three council members — Mayfield, Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and Vijay Kapoor — will meet Aug. 29 to discuss a moratorium.

A full vote by the council would then be needed to enact the stoppage.

Talk of the dramatic measure comes in the wake of a controversial June 25 split council vote to allow the conversion of the historic Flatiron Building into a hotel. Mayfield, who criticized the conversion but eventually voted for it, said the Flatiron put a focus on growing resident sentiment against hotels and tourism, particularly in downtown.

"There is a very strong sense that downtown is becoming a place only for visitors, not for residents, and that is a sentiment that we cannot ignore any longer," she said.

Over the last decade the idea of a moratorium has been floated – one time by a council member seeking to halt all large downtown developments – but it has never been approved.

Critics: Idea is not business friendly

But critics, including members of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, which controls the $25 million in hotel taxes and uses them for tourism marketing and projects to draw more visitors, called the measure anti-business and said it could have unintended consequences.

"I’m not sure why they're using words like 'moratorium,' you know?" said Buncombe County commissioner Joe Belcher, who sits as an ex-officio member on the BCTDA. "That is a very, very solid black line, if not a dotted line. And it's a ripple effect. Other businesses look at that and think, 'Am I next? If I’m next, do I need to move to South Carolina?

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Mayfield said she recently promoted the idea to give the council time to create more uniform guidelines on what type of hotel to allow — and where. The city already has strict rules saying any hotel project has to come before the council for approval. Other types of small to medium city projects can be passed by lower boards.

The result has been high-stakes council meetings, with hotel developers offering hundreds of thousands of dollars for affordable housing projects or other conditions in hopes of getting approval. Council members have used their own criteria, voting yes for some projects and no for others.

Why a moratorium on hotels?

“It would be to give ourselves some breathing room and to not to have to do the work under so much pressure,” Mayfield said.

The councilwoman, who is a 2020 candidate for state Senate, said the guidelines could be things like size limits on hotels downtown. Better guidelines would provide more predictability for the process, she said.

Mayfield said she spoke with Mayor Esther Manheimer about the issue and has a sense that at least four of seven council members will support it.

Council members are waiting for guidance on state moratorium law from city attorney Brad Branham but have said they understand North Carolina statutes to require a moratorium be for a specific reason, such as creating new rules. That means a building stoppage cannot go on forever and can’t result on a complete ban on a type of development. Mayfield estimated it could last six months to a year, while Vice Mayor Gwen Wilser, who also sits on the economic development committee, said she wasn’t sure but thought it would be more than three months but less than three years.

Wisler agreed guidelines were needed for predictability, saying she wasn’t "completely sympathetic to hoteliers" but understood the pain of spending nine months on a project and feeling like all requirements were met then having it voted down.

But she had different ideas about what the guidelines would be, suggesting requirements to help maintain sidewalks, or to keep downtown clean or help with transit.

"I think what you’re going to see is more of an idea of, 'What effect do hotels and their guests have on the city’s infrastructure, and therefore what do these developments need to do to help us address those effects?'”

That's roughly the standard agreeable to Samantha Cole, a local government liaison for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. In an emailed statement, Cole said the chamber is exploring what a moratorium would mean to its members, but also encourages the city to create development standards that "promote healthy growth, pursue economic well-being for every corner of our community and allow city staff to implement its designs."

But Andrew Fletcher, an Asheville musician and a member of the city's Downtown Commission, said a moratorium is needed — though it could have been avoided.

Fletcher has consistently voted to not recommend hotel proposals as a commissioner, including a forthcoming mixed-use development with 150 hotel rooms called Create 82 Broadway. He notes it's a project that might have received his support even five years ago but won't now because of pressing needs for things such as residential housing and office space.

Fletcher was a vocal opponent of changing the Flatiron from small-business office space to a hotel, offering to council in May something of a litmus test for projects: If it displaces locals for tourists, "the answer should always be a simple no."

"Because things have gotten so out of hand, it kind of requires a moratorium now," he said. "If the city had been talking about responsible management of tourism and sustainable tourism since people had been asking for this, they might have been able to tap the brakes instead of a drastic move like a moratorium."

Fletcher says he's not against hotels and other lodging proposals, but thinks Asheville's economy has become too reliant on tourism and needs to be diversified.

"A tourism economy hangs on a thread and there hasn't been the proper discussion about that," he said.

Will a moratorium help housing concerns? Some say no

Members of the BCTDA, such as Belcher and Andrew Celwyn disagree. A moratorium might make housing affordability issues in the community worse, said Celwyn co-owner of Herbiary. That is because preventing hotels could lead to a spike in both legal and illegal short-term vacation rentals, "thus reducing the housing stock available to local workers."

The move would also "exacerbate tensions," he said, between the city and the BCTDA as the council and authority negotiate over how some of the hotel tax money could be shifted to city infrastructure.

The full BCTDA has not formally issued an opinion on the possible moratorium.

"At a time when many local leaders are working together on how to best allocate the non-marketing dollars from the occupancy tax, this moratorium only complicates that process," he said.

Celwyn said the city could change current hotel zoning rules, which he said have polarized the community, without a construction stoppage.

"I say yes to a zoning process that preserves the historic nature of our downtown and surrounding areas that is transparent, fair, and reflects our values," he said. "Let's dig into the details and not initiate quick fix measures that might have unfortunate consequences."