Zoning in Buncombe - A Local's Take

Many of you may not have known this but Buncombe County was un-zoned until just this week - technically. Zoning actually passed last year but was challenged based on a technicality with the county commission vote.Historically Buncombe County citizens have been split on the idea of zoning. this stems mostly from the fact that local Buncombe County residents have had family here for a long time and people who settled here in the mountains around Asheville were wanting to get away from things going on in the "outside world." What you need to remember is that Asheville and Buncombe County didn't even have a railroad into the area until 1890 with the construction of the Buncombe Turnpike. This was considered a rough area and a hard area to get to and so the people choosing to live here were, let's just say, wanting to get away from something. So, the tradition carried forward that people who lived here in the mountains wanted to be left alone. They were hard working and depended on their neighbors to get by, but not necessarily for company.Bring that tradition forward 100 or so years and there is still an idea of "you do your thing over there, and I'll do my thing over here." I don't think that locals are really against the idea of zoning as much as they are against the idea of people who aren't necessarily from the area creating policy for them. Personally, I believe that in the long run zoning will be a good thing in the county but no doubt there will need to be some warming up to it.You can read more about the vote last night here:
Citizen-Times Article


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