A year into Asheville’s recovery from Tropical Storm Helene, two familiar words echo through local environmental and planning circles: climate resilience. And the road map to get us there, say these experts, has already been written.
In 2016, a team of 31 city staff members and volunteers partnered with UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC, now known as the National Environmental Mapping and Application Center) to study the issue. Two years later, in April 2018, the group’s report, Planning for Climate Resilience, was presented to Asheville City Council, which adopted the document as part of Living Asheville: A Comprehensive Plan for Our Future.
The 124-page climate document recommended actions in key areas, from forest protection and community outreach to fixing roads and bridges to withstand floods. Some steps have been taken, notably a $40 million dam improvement project at the North Fork Reservoir and improvements to weather alert systems. But most of the recommendations — like updates to floodplain zoning, stormwater design standards and expanded green infrastructure — remain largely untouched, a fact that came into sharp focus when parks and neighborhoods along the French Broad River flooded during Helene.
“I don’t think we need more studies,” says Lisa Raleigh, executive director of the environmental nonprofit RiverLink. “I think there’s actually really good studies out there. It’s just finding ways to move forward with some of those implementations.”
City officials say some progress has been made and more is on the way. “Since that time [2018], we have been working to advance the plan,” says Bridget Herring, the city’s recovery coordinator. She cites the North Fork Reservoir improvement — completed in 2020 — as one major success. The project expanded water storage capacity and included a new spillway designed to direct overflow more safely during major storms.
The dam improvement project was in the works before 2018, but Herring explains the climate resilience plan led the city to rethink its scope so that officials were not just patching up what was there but actually planning for long-term climate impacts.
“Surely, if that improvement hadn’t happened, we could have seen a significant level of more destruction and potentially more loss of life downstream [during Helene],” she says.
The city also developed a public Climate Action Toolkit aimed at helping residents understand and reduce their own vulnerability to natural disasters — though officials say early versions saw limited traction. That resource has since been updated and rebranded under a new outreach campaign called Elevate AVL, which focuses on preparedness at the neighborhood and watershed levels.
‘Starting from scratch’
After Helene, environmental advocates Alison Ormsby and Mary Spivey took a deep dive into a trove of more than a dozen reports, studies and community task force summaries that called for stronger flood planning and infrastructure upgrades — one report dated to 1955. What they found, they say, was a frustrating disconnect between knowledge and action.
Many of the same recommendations have reappeared in report after report: Reduce impervious surfaces, invest in green infrastructure, improve emergency communication systems and coordinate regionally on stormwater planning.
“There’s been a lot of really good work done,” says Ormsby, former co-director of sustainability at UNCA. “We’ve had flooding before. Why haven’t we learned from it? It’s almost like we’re starting from scratch again.”
For example, Ormbsy and Spivey point out, the city’s riverside parks were devastated by Helene, highlighting the need for the green infrastructure approach recommended in the 2018 plan. The local park that weathered the storm best — RiverLink’s Karen Cragnolin Park on Amboy Road — was built using such techniques: bioremediation plants, rain gardens, berms and permeable surfaces that allowed it to absorb and recover from flooding more quickly than surrounding areas.
“Green infrastructure is something we’ve been recommending for over 20 years,” Ormsby says. “And here we are still needing it.”
Spivey, former director of The Collider nonprofit who once worked for NEMAC, says many of the experts and city officials involved in the City of Asheville’s 2018 plan have since left their positions, leaving institutional knowledge scattered or lost.
“We talked to city officials who said, ‘I don’t even know where to find it,’” Spivey says. “This plan was developed with community input and technical expertise, and now it’s just sitting on a shelf.”
Herring disputes that characterization, however, saying the plan has served as a guide for city staff over the past seven years.
Ormsby thinks funding and bureaucratic hurdles have hampered implementation of needed climate resilience efforts. “There are plans in place, but getting them funded and executed takes time.” The recent influx of recovery funds from Helene offers a potential turning point, she says.
The two also underscore the need for a watershedwide approach involving both the city and county, as well as revitalizing task forces dedicated to stormwater management and flood mitigation. The Urban Land Institute’s recent report on Asheville’s recovery offers fresh strategic recommendations, echoing many of the same priorities identified over the past seven decades.
As Asheville looks to the future, Ormsby and Spivey urge city leaders and residents to remember the lessons from past reports and commit to tangible action. “The information is here. Now, we have to use it — so this doesn’t happen again.”
Not just Helene
Like Spivey and Ormsby, RiverLink’s Raleigh dug into past reports in the immediate aftermath of Helene. And like them, she thinks action, not more studying, is what’s needed as the area recovers and plans for the future.
Founded nearly 40 years ago, RiverLink focuses on both environmental and economic vitality in the French Broad River watershed. That dual mission includes protecting riparian zones — tree-lined buffers along the river that stabilize banks and reduce flood impacts — and helping guide resilient redevelopment in flood-prone areas such as the River Arts District (RAD).
“Those root systems are so deep and complex that they don’t allow for bank erosion, and they can even slow down floodwaters and/or keep things in the river channel,” she explains. “But when over years of taking them away due to development, those river banks without their riparian zones are very prone to eroding and collapsing.”
Post-Helene, RiverLink has partnered with Unified RAD — a coalition of artists, business owners and residents — to gather stakeholder input on how the district can rebuild in ways that are more flood resilient.
“We’re advocating in both lanes of supporting just responsible floodplain resilience,” Raleigh says. “We have to honor private property rights, but I think on the backside of Helene, we get to look at some things differently.”
Raleigh doesn’t see Helene as a one-off event but part of a larger pattern that includes smaller, more frequent flooding.
“Maybe it’s just an amplifier of what I think we’ve always known, but it brings it really present day,” she says. “We chronically flood here in varying degrees. … We don’t want Helene to sort of be the only measuring stick.”
While many commercial properties have the resources to rebuild with resilience, Raleigh notes it’s much harder for underserved residential areas such as Swannanoa. “That’s a tougher conversation. But I think on the commercial front, you’re seeing a lot of people really lean in and adapt.”
RiverLink has responded by expanding its programming to include recovery and planning alongside its water resource education.
“We’re championing the rivers wherever we go and making sure they have seats at the table … because we believe our recovery here is only going to be complete when our rivers are restored and reinforced.”
Her message for decision-makers?
“Please include the rivers in the recovery and [recognize] their role in our resilience, because they are so worthy of the investment.”
Looking ahead
The City of Asheville’s Herring says Planning for Climate Resilience will serve as a road map for recovery and a blueprint for a more climate-resilient future.
“The resilience assessment helped us think beyond routine maintenance,” she says. “It pushed us to plan for long-term climate realities, not just short-term fixes.”
Much of the plan remains aspirational at this point. But as Asheville enters a new phase of recovery, city leaders say many of those deferred actions are now coming into sharper focus — and funding opportunities triggered by the disaster could help bring them to life.
Among the city’s top priorities are several grant applications now in progress through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant program. If approved, the money would support projects ranging from flood mitigation in parks and neighborhoods to modernizing development ordinances to better reflect today’s environmental risks. The city is also eyeing improvements to energy infrastructure, including backup power and solar storage for critical facilities to ensure continuity during future weather emergencies.
But, Herring cautions, construction could still be years away even if the grants are awarded.
Emergency preparedness and communication strategies are also under review. An after-action report presented to Asheville City Council on Sept. 9 outlined both strengths and gaps in the Helene response. Officials believe that some of the communication recommendations in the original climate plan — including neighborhood-level education — could help build a stronger foundation for community-level resilience.
One example is the city’s aforementioned revamped Climate Action Toolkit, part of a broader campaign called Elevate AVL, which is designed to help residents understand and act on local climate risks. The toolkit offers region-specific guidance, from low-cost resilience tips to more substantial property-level changes, helping individuals and neighborhoods prepare for flooding, heat and other threats.
While Asheville also adopted a new Municipal Climate Action Plan in 2023 to replace the outdated 2009 Sustainability Management Plan, Herring says the 2018 resilience assessment still plays a central role. “It laid the groundwork for how we think about risk and recovery,” she says. “That’s more relevant now than ever.”
As grant applications move forward and recovery planning deepens, Herring says the 2018 climate resilience plan is a core priority that will shape everything from zoning to infrastructure over the next several years.
“Helene showed us just how vulnerable we still are,” Herring says. “But it also showed us how much smarter and stronger we can become — if we follow through.”
This article was originally published in the Mountain Xpress