Buncombe County Outlines Early Plans for Community Infrastructure Funding Application

Buncombe County Helene Recovery and Economic Development staff are outlining an early overview of potential projects and priorities for the state’s competitive Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Infrastructure funding opportunity, which aims to address unmet needs after Helene. This marks the beginning of a multi-month planning process to identify and advance projects that support long-term infrastructure recovery.

About the proposed projects

Most respondents to our recovery survey reported infrastructure as their number one priority following Helene, highly ranking road-rebuilding, bridge reinforcement, and support for our water system. Buncombe County does not have legal authority to rebuild roads or construct bridges and does not manage the local water system. To make the strongest application with the County’s areas of infrastructure management, three draft projects have been identified: parks recovery & resilience, Ferry Road affordable housing, and community resilience at County facilities. The projects have gone through the state-level pre screening process, an important first step in establishing eligibility.  

“We know traditional infrastructure that we think of like roads, bridges, and utilities are still a major concern after Helene. Our goal is to identify areas where we can make use of this infrastructure funding and go after as many recovery dollars as possible. For us at the County level, that means getting creative with our application proposals and revisioning our public parks, facilities, and resiliency tools as infrastructure,” says Helene Recovery Officer Kevin Madsen.

The Helene Recovery Plan outlined the need to recover parks, build more affordable housing, and invest in resiliency measures and preparedness.

Proposed Projects

Buncombe County Parks Recovery & Resilience: Rebuild Buncombe County Parks damaged by Hurricane Helene like Owen, Alexander, and Lake Julian to restore and reconstruct park services to pre-Helene levels, mitigate against future disasters, implement ecological restoration, and enhance long-term resilience and accessibility.

Ferry Road Affordable Housing Infrastructure: Build and improve essential road infrastructure on Ferry and Dry Ferry Roads that will enable the development of affordable housing on the Ferry Road Affordable Housing Community site. Tropical Storm Helene damaged and destroyed 6,505 units of rental housing in Buncombe County, to date there has been insufficient funding to repair and replace rental units, deepening our existing affordability crisis.

Community Resilience at County-Owned Facilities: Provide comprehensive permanent power redundancy systems (generators, controllers, and battery energy storage systems, etc.), improve existing County facilities, and mitigate against future extreme weather event for the County's critical facilities where residents could receive critical services. 

Public Comment Period

Public engagement is a required component of the CDBG-DR process. Community input will help refine the final project proposals, propose additional project ideas, and strengthen the County’s competitive applications. Buncombe County will hold a public hearing at the Aug. 18 Board of Commissioners meeting combined with a public comment period to gather feedback. The public comment period will be open from July 31 through Aug. 28. To offer input, residents can plan to speak at a public hearing or submit a comment. Public comment can be shared with the Helene Recovery Office by email at [email protected], by phone at 828-250-6100, or in writing to the attention of the Buncombe County Helene Recovery Office at 200 College St., Asheville, NC 28801. Please include in the email subject line: “Community Infrastructure Comment.” Any comments submitted are official public record.

Public Hearing 

Tuesday, Aug. 18 at 5 p.m.

Board of Commissioners Meeting

 Commissioners Chambers at 200 College St., Asheville

About the Funding

North Carolina received approximately $1.4 billion in CDBG-DR funding to support rebuilding efforts tied to the storm, and the Community Infrastructure program is one of the largest of those opportunities, providing funding to restore public facilities and infrastructure while improving long-term community resilience. This first funding round makes approximately $55 million available statewide, with individual projects capped at $15 million. Each proposed project must demonstrate three things: a clear tie-back to Helene, compliance with a HUD national objective, and eligibility under the State's Action Plan. Only local governments are eligible to apply for Community Infrastructure funding, and the funding is particularly focused on shovel-ready projects that can be implemented quickly.

Project Timeline

The application window for this funding is already open, with Buncombe County expecting to develop and submit proposals over the next two months. The deadline for submission is Sep. 8. Following state review, selected projects will enter additional phases, including environmental review and compliance steps.

For more information and to follow ongoing updates, visit the Helene Recovery webpage, view the full presentation from the July 21 Board of Commissioners briefing. Read the complete Public Notice.