ASHEVILLE — Big changes — "pivotal" ones, according to one City Council member — are about to happen in how buildings get built in the River Arts District.

Zoning changes proposed by a split council last month would require structures be built closer to the street, with an emphasis on maintaining walkability.

Other than short-term rental housing, less emphasis would be put on building use.

The changes ban whole-house tourist rentals, a practice made popular through websites such as Airbnb and opposed by many affordable housing advocates.

The rezoning would happen over the protests of some business owners situated between railroad tracks and the east bank of the French Broad River who say they fear they'll be forced out, though city planners say that isn't true.

The affected area stretches east and west along more than two miles of the French Broad, from the Salvage Station outdoor event venue in the north to the Amboy Road bridge in the south.

The council voted 4-3 at a regular July 24 meeting in favor of the proposed zoning changes to the RAD with the addition of the short-term rental, or "STR," ban.

Voting yes were Mayor Esther Manheimer, Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and council members Julie Mayfield and Gordon Smith.

Voting no were councilmen Cecil Bothwell, Brian Haynes and Keith Young.

Because of the addition of the STR ban, the issue must go back to the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, which had unanimously recommended the original rezoning plan on June 7.

The commission will give another positive or negative recommendation to the council as early as Sept. 6. The council will then take a final vote.

Commission Chairman Jeremy Goldstein said last week he opposed the ban’s addition, calling it "nonsensical."

Goldstein, who is also a council candidate, said since STRs were allowed in commercial districts outside the RAD, then they should be allowed in commercial districts inside the area of rezoning.

"Why don't we ban restaurants, breweries and music venues from the RAD as well then? What's the rationale?" he said.

Goldstein said he is "fiercely protective of existing owners' property rights" and "very concerned" a substantial last-minute change to the new zoning code after years of work by city staff, property owners and residents.

The rezoning is happening as the city embarks on its biggest capital improvement project ever — a more-than $50 million transportation overhaul in the RAD, including a new greenway, parks, sidewalks and road realignments.

While still the largest in city history, that overhaul is being drastically scaled back after private contractor bids came in $26 million over a 2015 estimate.

Meanwhile, developers have pushed ahead with finished and planned private projects totaling tens of millions of dollars, such as the New Belgium Brewing facility completed in 2016.

What’s on the outside matters more

The zoning changes – called "form-based code" zoning - came after two years of community meetings and other planning efforts.

The changes call for seven types of districts ranging from "RAD - Residential" to "RAD - Industrial" with "transitional" and "shopfront" and others in between.

The emphasis would be less on how property is used and more on the look of buildings with an emphasis on putting them near the street and sidewalk to encourage a walkable, urban feel.

The idea is to allow homes, employers, art studios, breweries, restaurants and recreation areas to co-exist in close quarters.

"The focus is on the placement of buildings in relation to the public realm," city planner Sasha Vrtunksi said in a report to the council. "The districts also define different allowable heights, setbacks, uses and building frontage."

Manheimer said the rezoning would help address resident concerns about the fast pace of development.

"As a council member, one of the major questions we get is, 'What are you doing about growth?' 'What are you doing to make sure that you preserve this city for the people who live here?'" the mayor said.

Because North Carolina cities are "fairly limited" in their powers, zoning is one of the few tools Asheville has to manage growth in the RAD, she said.

Smith called the time "pivotal," saying he anticipated "another half billion dollars, with a 'b' coming into this river district."

"Once these buildings pour in, we wont' be able to 'unring' the bell," the councilman said.

Projects being planned include the mixed-use RAD Lofts with 243 apartments and commercial space. That development headed by Harry Pilos would go on land once occupied by Dave Steel in the "V" formed by Roberts Street and Clingman Avenue. Another is the 133-unit Stoneyard Apartments proposed for Lyman Street.

Tourist rentals

The split council vote in July fell along regular lines of supporters and opponents of the STR ban, which now covers all residentially zoned areas of Asheville for rental periods of less than 30 days. While such whole-house rentals are illegal, renting a few rooms is allowed if the long-term resident is present and has registered with the city. The guests can't have their own kitchen.

STRs are allowed in most parts of the RAD under current zoning.

Smith made the motion for the ban saying without it the RAD could be flooded with "tourism homes" and "party houses," and could become a place more for tourists than locals. The prohibition would mean whole houses, condos and apartments could not be rented for less than 30 days.

Under the councilman's proposal, bed and breakfasts and homestays would still be allowed.

Manheimer pointed to numbers from Airbnb that show Asheville has more rentals through the San Francisco-based company than Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington and Durham combined. Those figures include all Asheville addresses, which don't align exactly with city boundaries.

"I think it's safer to proceed with caution," she said, rather than have to "wind it back" once it's already happened.

Haynes and Young said the STR issue shouldn't be dealt with in a piecemeal fashion. Haynes pointed to the fact that the tourist rentals are allowed in the city's other commercial areas.

"I'm uncomfortable with taking a commercial zone and excluding lodging from it when that is not true in other places," said the councilman, who lives just outside the rezoning area.

Haynes' home and other property he owns were once included in the rezoning. Vrtunski said she wasn't sure why that changed.

Speaking during a public comment period, Craven Street property owner Hannah Sara Choueke said she was representing 11 other property owners, and they all supported allowing STRs.

"We believe in allowing local citizens to capitalize on Asheville's tourism economy," she said.

Ban supporters say if the STRs are allowed there's no way to keep absentee property owners or out-of-town corporations from buying homes and using them for tourist rentals. That's because state law does not allow property owners in this case to be treated differently based on their residence.

Businesses and railroad

Council members voting no also said they were reacting to concerns of some of the business owners between the rail lines and the river.

Those business owners and their supporters said additional zoning rules could hurt them financially or make it difficult to operate. They asked that the area be excluded from the rezoning.

They said the area is the only viable place for rail-based businesses in Asheville.

"Out on the river there's contractors. There's recyclers. There's a steel plant. There's offices for people to work down there who build our community," said Jerry Sternberg, whose history with the area started when he worked along the French Broad as a boy.

Scott Welch, CEO of Consolidated Waste Services, said his company is located north of the proposed rezoning, but he said he understood the concerns of the business owners. Welch said he wondered if he would face a rezoning in the future.

"It would affect the livelihoods of a lot of people who work for us," he said.

Planning officials said all of the businesses would be grandfathered in and continue to be allowed to operate under the new zoning. The businesses would have to comply with new zoning rules if any construction increased the value of a building by at least 50 percent.

In some cases, it is flood rules and not the zoning rules that would mandate changes to businesses if they are destroyed by water or other causes and have to be rebuilt, said Wisler.

"So, whether or not the city implemented this change, they would have to come into compliance with the flood rules," the vice mayor said.

Mayoral candidate Jonathan Wainscott said the businesses were "uneconomic remnants" that don't actually use the train.

"To my knowledge, there is only one company that uses the rail line directly," Wainscott said. That is Silver-Line Plastics, which is outside the RAD and north of Asheville in Woodfin.

Bothwell said that might be true, but that big changes are coming to the rail line because a major use, coal transportation, was going to slow down or stop with the shutdown of Duke Energy's coal-powered electrical plant.

"I think once the coal trains are gone, we are going to see a lot more container shipping," the councilman said.

Roads getting more crowded could push more businesses to use rail, he said. And those containers would need places to offload.

"That is our stretch of railroad," he said.

In terms of the businesses voicing concerns, Bothwell said he felt owners may not have been "clued in" to the changes despite the large amount of community input. For that reason, the section should be taken out of the rezoning, he said.

Young echoed those concerns, saying he didn't think they'd had a chance to "adequately state their case."

Living next to the RAD

A few residents expressed concern about proposed changes, and how they would affect heights of buildings and the fate of a park.

After hearing those concerns from South French Broad neighborhood residents, city planners decided to leave Murray Hill Park out of the initial rezoning. The park off Bartlett Street is now zoned in a way that would allow housing, they said.

Some residents on and near Vernell Avenue asked for a height reduction in the "RAD-Lyman Hollow" zoning district just to their west.

Current zoning allows buildings up to 80 feet. The new zoning would cut that to 65 feet, but Vernell resident Michael Caldwell said that would still be too high, and would mean they "would be looking upwards" at buildings.

Council members, however, offered no change.