Buncombe extends fee waiver for Hurricane Helene home rebuilding through 2027

Homeowners rebuilding after Hurricane Helene will keep getting a break on Buncombe County planning and permitting fees for another year, a savings aimed at lowering the up-front cost of repairs that have already stretched insurance payments and contractor schedules. The county has extended Reduce to Rebuild through June 2027, keeping fee relief in place for eligible storm-damaged homes as residents work to restore livable spaces.

The program covers Helene-related repair and rebuilding work in Buncombe County, where officials have said homes must be documented as damaged or destroyed to qualify. County guidance says emergency repair permits are still required for disaster-related work, but the fee for those permits has been waived. Those permits are meant to stabilize buildings, make them safe to occupy, and bring them back to pre-storm condition, and Buncombe County says they are normally processed within one business day.

Reduce to Rebuild first launched on June 1, 2025, with 50% reductions on certain planning and permitting fees before being extended again. County officials had processed about 6,000 reduced-fee permit applications since the program began, with 472 meeting program criteria, and the estimated county revenue impact was roughly $26,000. Another report said officials had processed around 400 permits through the program.

The extension comes as Buncombe County continues to treat Helene recovery as a countywide effort, not a short-term cleanup. In September 2024, Tropical Storm Helene caused devastating flooding, landslides and damage across the county, and FEMA estimated the storm damaged more than 12,000 homes in Buncombe County. Across Western North Carolina, damage was estimated at $60 billion.

County leaders have also tied the housing effort to broader recovery planning. Buncombe County and six municipal partners developed a Helene Recovery Plan with 114 projects aimed at rebuilding housing, repairing infrastructure, restoring natural resources, strengthening disaster preparedness and supporting long-term resilience. The county’s housing recovery work is coordinated through its Housing Recovery Support Function, which brings together community partners and government agencies, while Renew NC offers additional repair help through a $1.4 billion federal disaster recovery grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

For many homeowners, the fee waiver can help remove one more hurdle from a rebuilding process still shaped by damaged homes, stalled contractor timelines and delayed insurance or aid decisions. Buncombe County also says any construction project costing $40,000 or more requires a North Carolina-licensed general contractor, a rule that further defines the scope of work still moving through the county’s recovery pipeline.