Buncombe County approves design work for Grovemont landslide mitigation

Buncombe County leaders voted unanimously today to approve a $794,000 contract with ECS Southeast for design and engineering work aimed at mitigating complex landslides in the Grovemont neighborhood of Swannanoa. Funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the contract covers aerial imaging, soil testing and engineering recommendations that county officials say are necessary to plan stabilized slopes and other physical measures.

Work on the design and engineering contract is scheduled to begin in early January and run through October. County officials emphasized that the contract funds only planning and technical analysis, and that the larger obstacle remains paying for construction. A prior FEMA estimate placed implementation costs at roughly 17 million dollars for Grovemont, a figure that will require state, federal or other local funding sources to meet.

Officials are positioning Grovemont as a pilot. If the technical approach demonstrates success, county leaders plan to apply similar assessments and designs to dozens of other complex landslides that were activated by Hurricane Helene. For Grovemont residents, the immediate benefit is a clear, documented set of engineering recommendations that can be used in grant applications and project budgeting. The longer term impact will depend on whether the county can secure the much larger sums needed to build the recommended fixes.

The Board of Commissioners addressed several other county matters during the December 2 meeting. Commissioners reviewed proposed revisions to the county Early Childhood and Development Committee funding strategy and discussed a draft formula for allocating a share of property and sales tax revenues to local schools. The board voted to end the Commercial Hauler Rebate Program, a move expected to save about 500,000 dollars a year. Appointments were made to a new Pedestrian Plan Steering Committee and the board approved changes to the policy governing ceremonial proclamations.

For Grovemont homeowners and nearby neighborhoods the design phase represents a crucial step toward hazard reduction, while also highlighting the funding gap between planning and construction. The pilot will test whether a focused, engineering driven approach can be scaled across Buncombe County to address the widespread slope failures triggered by recent storms.