Asheville, North Carolina

2 3 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 AT A GLANCE ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA WHAT: A diverse, community-oriented city of 95,000 WHERE: Blue Ridge Mountains region of western North Carolina WEBSITE: www.ashevillenc.gov Asheville, N O R T H C A R O L I N A I n June 2020, North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality blitzed the State with its 372-page directive on climate change adaptation. Titled the Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, it served a crystal-clear message to all policy makers and government stakeholders that the time to act was now. “The latest climate science underscores what we already know firsthand,” cautioned Governor Roy Cooper in his introductory speech to the report. “There will be increased temperatures, continued sea level rise, more precipitation, more intense hurricanes, more severe thunderstorms, and more storm surge flooding.” The good news was that the Plan supported the critical lens that we still controlled our own fate. Flash forward to 2021 and the climate change movement is mainstreaming H O W C H A N G E H A P P E N S