Date: May 13, 2024
1. What other elected or appointed offices have you held?
My name is Kim Roney, and I’m running for re-election to City Council. In my fourth year on City Council, I have been advocating for working, poor, and compassionate people in City Hall since Dec. 9th, 2014, having attended all but 3 meetings since. My experience started in the press row for 103.3 AshevilleFM where as a founding member I was Station Manager and News Producer, reporting back from over 20 civic meetings monthly. In 2016, I moved from the press row to service on advisory boards, appointed to Asheville’s Multimodal Transportation Commission and Transit Committee for four years where I worked on the Asheville In Motion Plan and the Transit Master Plan. During my time on Council, my civic responsibility has included:
- Council sub-committee member: Boards and Commissions, Governance, and Equity & Engagement Committee.
- Liaison/member: French Broad River MPO, ABC Board. Transit Committee, Urban Forestry, Neighborhood Advisory Committee, Human Relations Commission, and Homelessness Initiative Advisory Committee, Local Progress NC Organizing Committee, ART-C Coalition, the Governor’s Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Reduction Task Force, and EqualityNC Out-Elected
2. If you have held elective office, please tell us of any issues you’ve worked on with the REALTOR® organization.
I have not worked directly with LOTSAR at an organizational level, though I have attended events including JOE NYC and member meetings. As an advocate for affordability, I have worked alongside neighbors and your members advocating for deeply-affordable housing, multimodal transportation infrastructure, food security, eviction protection, and climate & neighborhood resiliency. I appreciate the effort members have made to spread the word and engage with our Missing Middle Housing Study and Affordable Housing Plan.
3. Briefly describe any volunteer/community-based projects, organizations, or advocacy efforts you have engaged in that you’d like to share.
I live with my partner in East-West Asheville, a home we purchased because of its proximity to West Asheville, the River Arts District, and Downtown and options to commute without a car. Now 16 years as a car-free family, we walk, bike, and use public transit, and I bring my experience to multimodal transportation and zoning advocacy.
I am also a music educator working with 34 families across 12 schools in Asheville and Buncombe County, so I volunteer with education organizations and our schools. Here are some of the organizations I’ve officially worked with since we moved here in 2006:
- Just Economics Policy Advocacy Committee (2018-current)
- Secretary – Asheville Music School (2020-current)
- President – East-West Asheville Neighborhood Association (2018-2019)
- Founding Member and Station Manager – 103.3 AshevilleFM (2009-2017)
- Volunteer: Asheville City Schools, Bountiful Cities Food Policy Council, Asheville on Bikes, Slay The Mic, Asheville Greenworks, Youth Outright, League of Women Voters, DemocracyNC
4. Please tell us of any personal contacts you may have in the REALTOR® organization or REALTORS® supportive of your candidacy.
LOTSAR members that have confirmed their support to date include: Carrie-Welles Craven, Sean Mack, Devorah Thomas, and Lauren Eaddy.
5. What do you think distinguishes you as the best candidate for this office?
I show up, I listen, I care deeply, and I dig into the details. Though every decision has layers, at the end of the day you only have two options–I have the courage to say “no” with the consistent leadership to say “yes” as we navigate tough decisions.
I’ve applied my experience in non-profit and corporate management to long-term visioning and system oversight, consistently bringing my best to the table even when I might not have enough support to advance initiatives. I’ve also been in City Hall for almost 10 years, so in addition to being able to maintain commitments and institutional memory/learning, I also have a history of community engagement focused on sharing the work to advance participatory democracy and shared civic responsibility.
6. List major endorsements/support from any Political Action Committees, political parties or caucuses.
Though most, major endorsements have not yet been announced, I have applied/will apply again and been consistently endorsed in the past by: EqualityNC; WNC Central Labor Council; NC AFL-CIO; and Center for Biological Diversity
7. Has your campaign done any polling? If so, can you share any results?
We are running a grass-roots, people-powered campaign and organizing beyond elections. Though we do not have the resources for polling, I am honored to have received the most votes in the City Council primary this year.
8. Would you welcome financial support of the REALTORS® Association (RPAC)?
I look forward to discussing what support might look like during our interview next week, and I appreciate the opportunity to be considered by RPAC.
9. What is your reason for running for this office?
I’m running because I witness so many in Asheville struggling to make ends meet on stagnant wages and fixed incomes as the cost of living rises, while the tourism industry strains our natural resources, burdens our infrastructure, and displaces our vulnerable neighbors. The work we must do to ensure a resilient community requires us to take better care of each other and our mountain home.
It’s also personal, a responsibility to heal our community and build a hopeful future. As a music educator, small business owner, and community organizer, my partner and I made Asheville our home in 2006. It’s the birthplace of my great-grandmother and was home to my great-great Aunt Faye, both life-long educators. With 25 years experience as a music educator, I currently work with 34 families, and know first time voters in this election that I’ve worked with since they were in elementary school. Our youth are holding us accountable to #BeBoutitBeingBetter.
10. What is the top issue facing the city of Asheville? What specific laws or other changes would you propose to address this issue?
True public safety is our top issue, and realizing it is a matter of priorities. Everyone in Asheville deserves to be safe, but a narrow definition of public safety limits successes and creates new problems. True public safety identifies needs and utilizes correct tools.
Making our community safer doesn’t have to be a distant reality, we should:
- Partner to expand Buncombe’s Community Paramedicine program with staff uniquely qualified to connect people with behavioral healthcare and substance use treatment;
- Bring Durham’s HEART program to Asheville like Raleigh and Fayetteville are working towards;
- Engage local community health workers for violence interrupter programming; and
- Regain our living wage certification so first responders can provide the quality, equitable services our community deserves and afford to live in the communities they serve.
11. As we work together to solve affordability issues, middle housing options such as townhomes, duplexes, and condominiums, often come up in discussions. Modest changes to our development ordinance to loosen rules on flag lot and cottage development standards would also open up more land available to build housing. What is your vision for creating more affordable housing and potential new housing options? What other ways do you believe zoning reform can lead to the development of more housing?
I’d like to hear how our land-use policies affect reality on the ground, and LOTSAR members are among the neighbors I expect to hear from on solutions. Both the Affordable Housing Plan and Missing Middle Housing Study are coming forward this year with recommendations. Council will need support for implementation, like finally bringing UDO amendments for flag lots and cottage amendments alongside recommendations from the Displacement Risk Assessment. Additionally, I continue to advocate for:
- A community benefits table will likely be a key tool in setting standards designed to meet our Comprehensive Plan goals while also providing a clear path for development of affordable housing. This can include points for deeply-affordable housing units, green-building, renewable energy, multimodal infrastructure, and MWBE contracting.
- Updates to our Land-Use Incentive Grants for creative and cooperative solutions are under review to ensure land use and new development work for our growing city while mitigating displacement and healing historic and current racial disparities in outcomes.
- Planning for deeply-affordable housing on transit corridors close to resources with a Buncombe-Asheville Transit System that pools resources locally and regionally to improve location affordability and offset the growing costs of transportation while reducing vehicle miles traveled as we work towards carbon reduction. The next step in partnership between the County and the City should be collaboration to increase frequency on the South Asheville corridors, then planning for job and housing growth near Enka/Candler, followed by evening service expansion and a Downtown Circulator as outlined in the Transit Master Plan as we work towards regional transit.
12. As our communities grow, it is important to balance population growth with the growth of existing infrastructure and community amenities. How would you suggest that your local government pay for the growing needs of a growing community, including infrastructure?
In addition to prioritizing our existing resources, my commitment to pursuing new and untapped revenue includes:
- An equitable distribution of our hotel occupancy tax: A greater percentage of our hotel occupancy taxes to insure supportive infrastructure that improves quality of life for the people who live and work here will also support our City being a better place to visit. As a member of the Policy, Finance, and HR Committee, I have consistently and successfully advocated for changes to our occupancy tax to be included in our legislative agenda and regularly appeal to our state delegation.
- Maximizing federal and state funding: Asheville doesn’t receive the sales tax revenue we generate since the state change in 2016. While we continue to build coalition across the state for legislative changes, we must ensure direction and support for staff to fully realize federal and state funding opportunities at the city, county, and regional level.
- NC is ready to decriminalize and regulate cannabis! We should use our ABC control system to ensure it is a benefit to public health and our economy while also investing in safety and education. Funding should be dedicated to economic development, schools and training, infrastructure, and a focus on small and local industry with a racial equity lens.
13. What are your thoughts around property owners in your town/city and their right to use their property as a long or short term rental?
As a small business operator using part of my home for my business, I support homestays, and I want to make sure they work for the people of Asheville while not eroding the cultural identity of our neighborhoods and overburdening our infrastructure. My support for updated kitchen regulations reflects my position on the nuance, not wanting neighbors to rip kitchens out of STRs that could be converted to future LTRs.
In 2021, I worked with staff and the Vice Mayor to regulate at the platform level. That effort did not have enough Council support at the time, and now our community has fewer opportunities to support our homestays and neighborhoods through common-sense regulation of STRs. As community concern grows, more partnerships are needed to pursue protection of our neighborhoods from illegal, whole-home rentals.
14. Nationwide there is a homeownership gap among underrepresented communities. For example, recent data shows there is more than a 30% gap between black and white homeowners. What are some ways that we can ensure homeownership is attainable for all citizens?
I am following the work of the Community Reparations Commission (CRC), which includes housing as one of their five focus areas. Community-driven solutions include: the Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust, partnering with City-owned land, and investing in both education and workforce/workplace development to address the racial opportunity gap in our schools as well as income inequality, most notable among the demographic of Black women. The first recommendation of the CRC was for the City and County to set aside a percentage of the annual budget, which would grow over time–we have initiated this recommendation with an annual allocation and compounding interest. The next round of recommendations is in the process of being finalized by the CRC and we anticipate updates this summer.
We also need to look at maintaining home ownership and generational wealth in vulnerable communities and Black/legacy neighborhoods impacted by Urban Renewal and redlining. Updated recommendations from Urban 3 regarding the disproportionate impact of property taxes on Black/legacy neighborhoods needs to be addressed, and the City of Asheville can’t stay quietly complicit. Thankfully, the County is initiating some new processes and expanding capacity intended to address some of these concerns in this budget cycle.
15. What are your top issues/priorities?
Affordability – Public Safety – Climate & Neighborhood Resiliency
- Public Safety: Working to keep everyone safe means diversifying our response to the opioid crisis, homelessness, and mental health–sending the person with the right tools and training during times of crisis; implementing recommendations to reduce homelessness by 50%; and designing complete streets for safe commutes.
- Affordability: Initiating a public benefits table that incentivizes deeply-affordable housing for people who live and work in Asheville; prioritizes housing close to jobs and groceries; increases transit frequency; and keeps utility costs in check.
- Climate & Neighborhood Resiliency: Bolstering neighborhood plans; implementing our Climate Justice Initiative; securing food and water systems; holding standards for renewable energy in new residential development; and following through with Reparations.
Please read more on my platform and ways we can share the work to take better care of each other and our mountain home.
Thank you for your consideration! Kim