If one theme of rebuilding in a post-Helene world has emerged, it’s this: complexity.

None of this is simple, whether it’s clearing debris, restoring roads, or trying to figure out if and how you can rebuild your business in a floodplain. Much confusion remains in this last item, whether it’s rebuilding in a historic zone or trying to determine if the damage to your building exceeds 50 percent of market value, which triggers the requirement to build to modern flood code.

The business end of rebuilding was the subject of the Council of Independent Business Owners meeting Friday morning, at which Assistant City Manager Ben Woody, Development Services Director Mark Matheny, and Stormwater Division Manager Derek Wainscott addressed a packed house at UNC Asheville’s Wilma Sherrill Center meeting room. 

They first laid out the scope of the issue, with Matheny noting that after Helene the city has conducted 1,615 property assessments and 964 inspections. Of those, 434 properties have been deemed restricted in use and 217 unsafe. The city has issued 787 building permits out of 887 total applications, which Matheny said is actually probably closer to 1,300. 

Of those permits issued, 373 are for commercial properties, 414 residential.

The valuation of all those permits is $68.7 million, with commercial permits accounting for $58.3 million of that. It’s safe to say that most of this is for post-Helene rebuilding, although Matheny noted they do still get routine permit applications. 

He and Ben Woody announced that the city has also formed a new entity called the Floodplain Assistance Support Team, which will officially launch this week. The idea with the FAST program is to be able to provide individual and specific help to property owners trying to negotiate the rules of rebuilding.

(On a side note, Matheny noted that initially they just had “Floodplain Assistance Team,” which would have resulted in an unfortunate acronym. I chuckled).

The idea with the FAST program is to provide “focused and personalized support” for property owners with Helene damage. It’s similar to the city’s “early assistance” program, but with a quicker turnaround and more focused help.

One property owner’s journey

Property owners had lots of questions for the city officials, which is not surprising. Within days of starting to report on the post-Helene world in early late September and October, I quickly realized rebuilding is going to take considerably longer than a lot of people suspect — and the process is going to make some property owners’ heads spin.

In late November I met up with Darren Green, whose 99 Riverside LLC owns the building at that address. It formerly housed the Second Gear business, an outdoor gear consignment store that has since relocated and reopened in the Westgate Shopping Center.

The one-story Riverside Drive building took a serious beatdown from Helene, with debris punching holes in both ends of the structure, knocking out interior support pillars and collapsing most of the roof. When I talked with Green, he was still trying to figure out first of all if the building loss was beyond 50 percent, which he certainly expected it to be.  

It was. On Jan. 14 the city issued a demolition permit for the building, or more precisely demolition of the exterior walls and roof. The foundation and slab will remain in place.

“The building was severely damaged during Hurricane Helene and as a result is unsalvageable,” the permit states.

That sentence, devoid of any emotion, belies Green’s attachment to the building.

In 2010, Green bought the 10,000-square-foot structure, which was built in 1961 and formerly served as an appliance store’s warehouse. Initially, Green operated his own small business from the building, the Old Wood Company, creating and selling custom wood furniture to people around the country.

It was busy and stressful but also a great part of his family history.

“There was an emotional connection to the building,” Green told me. “This is where we had a Halloween party every Halloween here, and invited friends and family and neighbors. So, it was like losing a member of the family.”

Green stood in the back of the building, debris still hanging from the rafters 13 feet above us.

While Second Gear went into the space in 2021, Green says the building still “just felt like an  extension of your family.” Green and his wife, Marissa, have three children now, ages 11, 13, and 17, and the day of the storm, Sept. 27, they all went to the West Asheville bridge to watch the flooding in the River Arts District.

“We watched the water come up to the roof of the building,” Green said. “That was a real low. That was really a sad, shocking moment that we were experiencing.”

The Greens manage three properties on the river, and all of them sustained some level of damage. They own the old Roots hummus building at 166 West Haywood St., and the Cultivate Climbing gym building on Amboy Road.

Operating these properties is their job, so Green has to be a business guy about the damages and try to objectively assess his situation. At 99 Riverside, the good news is that they did not have any outstanding bank loans on the building, and they did have flood insurance.

The bad news?

“I did have flood building insurance, but our policy — and most policies — maxes out at $500,000,” Green said. “Out of that $500,000, I’m expected to use any of that money to do the demo work, to do the debris cleanup, to do all that.”

He’d like to repurpose the site on that remaining foundation and slab, which is elevated about four feet, but because the building was more than 50 percent destroyed — “substantially damaged” as the city will likely say — Green says he’s going to have to comply with floodproofing codes. That likely will involve hydrostatic modeling conducted by an engineering firm, and flood-proofing technology that gets very expensive, very fast.

“Based on building costs, if you were to build a 10,000-square-foot building at $100 a square foot, you’re at a million dollars,” Green told me in November. “And I don’t know if you can build a 10,000 square foot building for $100 a foot. That would be a stretch.”

‘I think we’re looking at two to three years’ 

The city, at the CIBO meeting, noted that the U.S. Small Business Administration’s loan program has been funded, so those looking to rebuild can try to access that funding source. After the meeting, Woody noted that Mountain BizWorks established the Helene Business Recovery Loans for small businesses, but those loans tend to be small.

The city recently was awarded $225 million in federal funding, but that will be administered through the Community Development Block Grant program, which is anything but fast. To be fair, Woody noted that the timelines “are not ours” and the city has no way to speed those up.

“Honestly, recovery is measured in years for this event, not months,” Woody told the CIBO group.

At 99 Riverside, Green eventually wants to develop something “that would be an asset to the community.” But he’s realistic. 

“I think we’re looking at two to three years,” Green said, noting that bureaucracy is just a part of that timeframe. “Honestly, we’re looking at every option that is available to kind of make the best decision we can with the information that we have, and the funds that might be available.”

Green chaired the Asheville Buncombe Riverfront Commission for several years, and he says he’s always had “a lot of respect for the city and county” and realizes they too are dealing with an unprecedented event.

By the way, 99 Riverside did flood in 2004 from Hurricane Frances, but it had only about a foot of water inside then and did not sustain structural damage. That was the kind of flooding Green expected in September, or maybe a little worse.

While we were talking, he pointed out a couple of sandbags they’d placed by the doorway in what turned out to be a futile attempt to keep out that type of rise from the French Broad River, which is just about 75 yards away.  I asked him what he would say to people who flatly state folks should not rebuild in the River Arts District or other high-risk floodplain areas.

“I think there are ways, and I think we as a country are going to have to learn how to build to the climate,” Green said. “I think there’s ways to do that. I think there are products that exist out there that will mitigate water from coming into your building.”

But he acknowledges they’re expensive.

“I think if governments are serious about wanting to develop, or wanting people to take the risk and develop in these areas that are prone to flooding, then we might need some subsidies in being able to acquire those technologies that exist,” Green said.

City wants to get property owners to ‘yes’

Woody, Matheny and Wainscott encouraged the property owners at CIBO to set up an appointment to talk with the newly created FAST team, and to have their own experts provide estimates on rebuilding costs. They want as much information as possible to determine damage estimates.

As Woody put it, the city wants to do “as much as we can to get you to ‘yes,’” as in yes, you can rebuild.

“We understand that this is life-altering for many of you, and we need to be there to be a resource,” Woody said. “So that’s the goal of this.”

But again, the complexity is nothing to underestimate. For instance, Woody pointed out that if your building comes in at, say, 48 percent damaged, but then when you do all the work and turn in the final receipts, it actually totals more than 50 percent damage, that has to be addressed.

That literally could mean having to tear down the new work. Woody said he used to work in the flood-prone Outer Banks, and that scenario had happened there.

It looks like CIty Council will address a few of the concerns property owners have about plans to tweak the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, including maintaining a uniform requirement for a two-foot “freeboard.” That’s the height line for habitable space above the 100-year floodplain marker. Some confusion exists in the city’s current ordinance, and the plan is to clean that up, Woody said.

The city also will likely keep the “lookback period” at one year, not five years. The lookback period is important because if a property owner does work on a flood-damaged property over a period of years, the total cost of renovations could cause that “substantial damage” mark to exceed 50 percent.

That would be a lot easier to reach if you’re looking back at work over a five-year period instead of one. The city changed the rule in 2009 to the one-year standard, but somehow the five-year language remained in the UDO. 

Woody assured the crowd the city wants a one-year lookback period, not five, but it needs to clean up the ordinance, which will probably happen at council’s Jan. 28 meeting.

I told you none of this is simple. And I’m not even getting into the discussion about historic districts and “non-comforming uses” and variances.

In a nutshell, the city and council are taking pains to make sure it’s in compliance with the National Flood Insurance Protection program, which gives locals access to flood insurance. It also requires the city to have a flood ordinance, and that requires the specifics of the city’s code be in line with state and federal requirements.

“North Carolina is a complicated state,” Woody said. 

Truth.

The best plan of action for affected property owners is to make an appointment with that FAST team so you can get the best individualized feedback. You can contact the team by sending an email to fast@ashevillenc.gov

I don’t envy anyone involved in this process. Godspeed.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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