Planning for a More Sustainable Buncombe County
While the rich history of Buncombe County as both a proactive community and local government is highly recognized, as our community continues to grow we find ourselves increasingly focused on adapting to inevitable changes in a sustainable manner. In order to provide guidance to these efforts, Buncombe County is currently in the process of developing a County-wide Sustainability Plan. This plan will serve to inspire both community and local government to put sustainable practices first, thereby strengthening our environment, community, and economy.
A mission statement and vision statement have been adopted to help direct this planning process. The mission statement identifies the purpose of the plan, while the vision statement focuses the plan’s strategies toward a specific vision for the future.
Mission Statement
Buncombe County is dedicated to strengthening our quality of life for everyone by taking fiscally and socially responsible actions to ensure the prosperity of future generations. Our collective decisions as citizens, businesses, government, and organizations measurably enrich our environment, our community, and our economy.
Vision Statement
Buncombe County is a leader in sustainable practices through the collaboration of citizens, institutions, businesses, and government.
We promote a sense of community through public engagement. We celebrate a healthy, safe, well-educated, and thriving community with a sustainable quality of life. We are stewards of the environment who advocate the conservation, preservation, and restoration of resources. We are part of a community and environmentally-conscious economy that is stable and diverse. We have a strong sense of place, and continue to work to preserve our distinctive landscape and culture.
We are committed to continually improving our community for the betterment of future generations.
Sustainability Plan
The Sustainability Plan has been finalized and will be presented to the County’s Board of Commissioners for consideration on May 15, 2012. Revisions have been incorporated into the Plan based upon citizen input during the public comment process in order to best capture the vision and concerns of the community as a whole. This draft Plan, in PDF format, is located below for your review. [Draft Sustainability Plan]
The development of the plan relied upon input from local experts, the Buncombe County Sustainability Partnership, and community members. The process spanned more than a year and included an extensive inventory of the current needs of the community, as well as consideration of anticipated future needs. As we move toward the implementation of this community-wide plan, we encourage the continued input and participation of all citizens in Buncombe County. Although the community meetings for public comment have concluded, your feedback is welcome at (828) 250-4830 or via e-mail at Sustainability@BuncombeCounty.org.