Asheville council rejects 100-unit affordable housing project in Shiloh

One hundred income-restricted apartments on Caribou Road were wiped off Asheville’s housing pipeline when City Council unanimously rejected Pennrose LLC’s rezoning request for a nearly 9.5-acre parcel in Shiloh. The vote left a major affordable-housing proposal dead in a neighborhood where residents said the issue was not whether Asheville needs more housing, but whether this site could safely handle it.

Council took up the proposal on May 13 after nearly two hours of public comment and debate. The plan would have changed 99999 Caribou Road from Residential Single-Family Medium Density, or RS-4, to Residential Expansion Conditional Zoning, opening the door to a mix of multifamily and townhome-style housing. The project called for two three- and four-story apartment buildings, four quadplex-style buildings and a clubhouse.

City staff had recommended approval, saying the project fit Asheville’s comprehensive plan and would increase the city’s housing supply. Instead, council sided with residents who warned that the streets around the site were too narrow, that the development would rely on a single access point, and that pedestrian safety and emergency access could be compromised by the added traffic.

The denial carries particular weight in Shiloh, one of Asheville’s last historically Black neighborhoods. The city says Shiloh was formally established in 1870, and the neighborhood’s long history of displacement still shapes local concerns about growth and redevelopment. The original Shiloh community was forced to relocate in the late 1880s after George Vanderbilt bought land for the Biltmore Estate, a history that still informs fears about loss of stability and generational wealth.

The council’s decision also came just one day after it unanimously approved a separate Pennrose project at 1116 Sweeten Creek Road, clearing 126 affordable apartments. Pennrose had previously floated two Shiloh projects totaling 226 affordable apartments in March, underscoring how much of the company’s local housing strategy was tied to the neighborhood.

The split outcome shows Asheville is not rejecting affordable housing outright. It is drawing sharper lines around where density belongs, how much traffic a street can absorb and how much change a legacy neighborhood should be expected to carry. For a city still under pressure to produce more affordable homes, the Caribou Road vote signals that future projects may face the same hard test: not just whether they add units, but whether they fit the place.