The solution to affordable housing, viable transportation, and reduced emissions

Many of the aspects of urban living that Asheville hopes to achieve — efficient mass transit, ample housing stock, and diverse neighborhoods — will require a significant change to the zoning code that determines the shape and feel of our city. Like cities across the country, Asheville has swaths of the city zoned exclusively for single-family dwellings. How would converting these areas to multi-family housing affect the challenges we face as a community? Planners, environmentalists, community organizers, and equity advocates agree that rethinking zoning could be a game-changer for our city.

Today, the very density that the court scorned is viewed by environmentalists as an antidote to sprawling development patterns that feed gridlock and auto emissions. It’s viewed by planners as an essential condition to support public transit, and by economists as the best means of making high-cost cities more affordable. -Badger & Bui, NY Times,