Tuesday, the Buncombe County Commissioners are likely to approve an allocation of tax revenues from the Ellington to affordable housing. The Ellington is a skyscraper that will be either approved or denied by Asheville City Council later the same night.

The developers have already created a trust fund so 1.25% of initial sales and 0.5% of resales for the hotel and condos will go to affordable housing projects in and around Asheville. The tax revenue the commissioners will pledge is estimated to be $455,000 per year.

Flipping to Asheville City Council’s agenda, one finds that in their initial report, the developers were optimistic that Asheville, the State of North Carolina, and the federal government would match contributions, perhaps $1 for every $3 donated from sales.

City staff is also requesting that approval be contingent on 21 points demanded by the mayor at the last hearing. These include adjusting the building’s top lighting out of consideration for migratory songbirds, and changing traffic patterns for left turns on US 25.