Asheville for All

This member commentary post does not necessarily reflect the views of Asheville For All or its members.

NOTE: The city council public hearing mentioned below has been rescheduled for January 23, 2024.

On Tuesday, Asheville City Council will be voting on an amendment to the city’s rules around flag lots. In short, flag lots allow two homes to be situated along the same street frontage, with one home in back of the other. This works because the lot for the home in back effectively has a narrow portion that sticks out to the street, presumably where a shared driveway is. It’s called a “flag lot” because that driveway portion looks like a flag pole.

Flag lots are already allowed in our city, but there are some restrictions around them. This new amendment mostly seeks to allow for “poles” that are narrower. That means flag lots will be more possible on many of the deep, narrow lots that we have in high-demand, high-amenity neighborhoods like West Asheville.

One way to think about making flag lots more permissible is that it’s another means to get to the same end as encouraging detached ADU’s.

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs), sometimes called “granny flats,” are allowed throughout Asheville, and the city sees them as an important part of its broader strategy of encouraging infill in our residential neighborhoods. (We should note that there are some odd restrictions around ADUs and how big they can get. Asheville For All discussed those restrictions a few months ago when we endorsed the statewide ADU bill that now seems unlikely to pass this year.)

One problem with ADUs is that if you want to build one in your backyard, it means that a) either you actually have a “granny” that is going to live there, or b) you intend to become a landlord. This doesn’t necessarily mean that ADUs can’t contribute to the housing shortage—The Washington Post had an article earlier this year showing some ADU success in California. But it does limit their appeal.

Further, ADU construction isn’t always easy to finance. If you already own a home, building an additional home in the back of it isn’t nearly as straightforward as getting a mortgage.

Enter Flag Lots?

A flag lot with a house on it doesn’t look so different from a detached ADU. The major difference is that the house in back exists on its own plot of land. There’s a technical term for this: the lot is said to be “fee simple.”

Here's what a narrow-pole flag lot with a shared driveway might look like.

“Fee simple” means that you can live in a place without having to rent it, and without having to enter into a condo or homeowners association. These kinds of associations aren’t necessarily bad; and they make a lot of sense if you’re living in a triplex or larger building made up of townhomes or flats that are individually owned. But if you’re going to have a detached home on the market, being able to offer it up as fee simple makes things easier for the developer, the buyer, and/or the seller.