Asheville Citizen-Times: Board: Asheville downtown airbnbs, tourist rentals should be stopped (4 January 2018)

This Jan. 4 screenshot shows short-term vacation rentals available downtown through Airbnb.

Former council candidate and musician Andrew Fletcher said he and band mates lost their downtown studio on Chicken Alley when it was converted into a vacation rental.

The city study, which shows 40 downtown units flipping over the past three years, missed some of the conversions that displaced his friends, he said.

“The kind of people who have been kicked out are the people who have created the character of the city,” Fletcher said.

The crackdown is needed to keep Asheville from becoming “another Aspen, or another city that is completely dominated by outsiders,” he said.

That was a tougher stance than one Fletcher took as a candidate in the 2017 election when he said illegal vacation rentals couldn’t be totally stopped and that some should be allowed as a compromise.

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/01/04/asheville-downtown-airbnb-tourist-rental-ban-planning-zoning-vote/1002454001/