Asheville City Council last night passed a freeze on new hotel construction for a year.
The council voted unanimously on the ban, intended to give city officials time to assess the local impact of the $2 billion tourism and hotel industry – to include community listening sessions.
The ordinance imposing the temporary moratorium on new hotel development says “the City finds that it presently lacks a clear development strategy regarding hotels, and needs to develop a set of review criteria that allows the City to account for the negative impacts of proposed hotel developments.”
The City says in a news release that following the impact analysis, city staff will present recommendations for development and approval of appropriate land use policies, strategies, and regulations to apply to future hotel projects.
