STR ban in Woodfin NC

[Kenneth Woodruff]

Hi all, I have a friend and fellow investor in NC who has a STR in Woodfin, NC (North of Asheville), he called me today and said there was a town hall meeting last night and the town is going to ban all STR's in Woodfin. He has his highest producing unit in Woodfin and is concerned for sure; my concern is if this idea spreads as we have a property in Fletcher, which is south of Asheville. Any thoughts on ability to fight changes like this or are we stuck with the outcome? He said there was some pushback from a few owners and contractors so they have given a 30 day window to apply for a STR license, but they gave no criteria. The main complaint was from residents and typical, noise, unknown visitors, property values hurt, etc...

Would love not know opinions, especially from anyone local.

[JD Martin]

No chance of stopping it. A new council was elected last November that is decidedly less "grow at all costs" and they are going to put the kabash on it. I spent 20 years working here and there is a real battle going on between the people that have been here all their lives (Woodfin has a lot of legacy families) and outsiders that brought their money here and drove the prices of everything up.

Where is his property? My best guess is that they are going to prohibit it in the traditional old part of town and allow it in the newer annexed areas like Leisure Mountain, Reynolds Mountain, etc. Not sure what the reference is to the permitting part, as NC prohibits cities from requiring STR owners from getting permits. No way do I see the prohibition of anyone owning multiple units surviving any kind of legal challenge. A lot of these things end up getting worked out once legal counsel has a good chance to take a look at it. On the other hand, there's always been a lot of "Fire, Ready, Aim" in Woodfin.

Here's a link to the actual story on the meeting:

https://www.citizen-times.com/...

Here's a good link to NC's rules on STRs, which essentially says they can zone them in/out and regulate them like any other business but cannot require permits or licenses:

https://canons.sog.unc.edu/202...