From today’s Asheville Citizen-Times ...

When people sit on the decks of their condominiums in Florida and tell their friends they’re moving to Asheville, what they really mean is they plan to live someplace like Reems Creek, Fairview or Candler.

That’s the conclusion suggested by population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau today.

The numbers indicate that areas outside the limits of Buncombe County’s municipalities have grown three times as fast as those within so far this decade — with potentially serious consequences for open space and farmland in the county.

The population of the county’s unincorporated areas grew 15.7 percent from the 2000 census to July 1 of last year, to 135,557.

Once the effects of annexation are substantially factored out, the growth rate of the county’s six municipalities was 4.8 percent.

Other census figures indicate people moving to the region are a major source of population growth in Western North Carolina. Many of those new residents “are coming here because they love the natural landscape, and they want to live in it,” said Margo Flood, executive director of the Environmental Leadership Center at Warren Wilson College.

The estimates put Asheville’s population at 74,543 as of July 2008. Including population added by annexation, that’s up 8.2 percent since the 2000 census and makes Asheville the 12th-largest city in the state.

More: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090701/BUSINESS/907010321

Is this really surprising news? I rarely follow things out in the county, but I’ve always assumed that the development out there was kind of rampant.

It is. As much as Ashevillians bitch and moan about development in their fair city, it’s really nothing compared to what’s happening in the county. You know, where the actual green space is.
I’d be much more inclined to support a moratorium on new gated communities than new building in the city.

I also never really cared about the zoning issue until recently, when some developer attempted to build a concrete plant within walking distance to 4 public schools in north Buncombe. Now I’m fully pro-zoning.

my problem with the whole up vs out debate is that it is often apples and oranges. i really dont think the people who are going to move to reems creek, or even weaverville, are going to want to live in a high-rise downtown. and, alternately, the people who want to live in a condo downtown may very well also have a house out in the ‘country’. i mean, building up is good, but does bulidng luxurey condos and botique hotels really save green space int he surrounding counties? i just dont see it.

When they figure out how to put golf courses on top of skyscrapers we are all in big trouble.

Yes, and there is the problem.  Most developers don’t want to condescend to building housing that is AFFORDABLE to the median wage earner.  I mean really, how many gated golf course communities do we need?? 

Many large-tract owners are selling to whoever will pay the most without regard to what happens to their land - with little to no restrictions as to subdividing, which is creating high density development.  People don’t come here looking for high density development.  That is not the ideal mountain place most people envision.

Hey, you guys made it what it is.

travelah - 01 July 2009 06:26 PM

Hey, you guys made it what it is.

The city, sure. But I take no blame for anything that happened out in the county. Different crowd entirely.