GroWNC: Together We Create Our Future

GroWNC was a three-year planning program to develop a framework of voluntary, locally-implemented, market-based solutions and strategies to ensure that as western North Carolina continues to grow, the effects of this growth have a positive impact on the region and its communities. The regional plan weaves together existing plans and strategies with extensive public input from a variety of backgrounds and interests to identify issues, goals and objectives across multiple topic areas. The plan and toolkit of products and resources will foster economic prosperity through a regional vision that identifies implementable projects and actions. GroWNC was funded by a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the Partnership for Sustainable Communities

Asheville: Resilience through Leadership, Partnerships and Diversity

Asheville’s ability to rebuild itself and to foster a vibrant downtown in the second half of the 20th century owes much to its early history. Asheville was a booming town in 1900, an urban center for the mountain area with numerous trading-related businesses. The completion of the railway line to Asheville in 1880 had ushered in a period of increased tourism and development. By the turn of the century, the area hosted a number of health sanitariums that attracted people from far and wide. It was marketed as a beautiful place where people could rest, renew, relax, and recover from illnesses. Ever since this time, tourism has played an important and growing role in Asheville’s economy