Maybe I misread the article, but it seems to say that these B&Bs will be permitted after the Nov 7 vote.
Not in my neighborhood. Only in business zones. Most of the airbnbs in Asheville are in residential neighborhoods. Here is the important part of the ordinance:
So long as somebody wants to have a bed and breakfast in an owner-occupied building in a part of the city where code allows it, and they get the appropriate permit, they can advertise on services like Airbnb.
“Airbnb is marketing; it’s not a new definition of what bed and breakfasts are,” Fahl said.
Vacation rentals that aren’t owner-operated still are not allowed under the new ordinance. These make up a big portion of the rentals advertised on the aforementioned websites.
Prior to this ordinance, the city’s code office threatened to levy a hefty, $500-per-day fine against anyone discovered to be operating short-term vacation rental establishments (via services such as Airbnb and VRBO, typically) outside of the limited areas defined in the former code.
The city’s former zoning code only allowed bed and breakfasts to be operated on streets that “front on a street officially designated as a state or federal highway, or on Richland Avenue, East State Street, West Union Street or Columbus Road.” Business owners have complained in recent years about the restrictive nature of that code.
The main changes in the measure revolve around allowing bed-and-breakfast operation in Athens’ R-3 residential zones and Athens’ B-1, B-2 and B-2-D business zones.