Chapel Hill council reviews 2 housing plans, says one is exactly what the town wants

The Chapel Hill Town Council welcomed for-sale workforce housing proposed for the Estes Drive corridor Wednesday night and asked the developer to consider adding a few more homes to it.

Meanwhile, the developer of an apartment and townhome project proposed for north of Weaver Dairy Road heard several suggested changes.

Lock7 Development LLC partner David Gorman wants to build roughly 95 townhomes and condos on an eight-acre parcel at 710 N. Estes Drive, including 40 homes with attached garages. A dozen homes could be priced affordably for individuals earning up to $53,600 a year or a family of four earning up to $76,550 a year.

The project site is between Somerset Drive and the Aura Chapel Hill project, which is adding 419 apartments and townhomes with a small amount of retail to the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Estes Drive.

The latest plan would offer much-needed affordable workforce housing to serve UNC and town employees, teachers, and other low- to middle-income earners, Gorman said. It also could add a needed stoplight at Somerset and Estes drives, where left turns already are difficult when traffic is steady.

N.C. Department of Transportation officials will want the project to be built and the town to complete Estes Drive bike and pedestrian project, now in progress, before considering the stoplight, Mayor Pam Hemminger said Wednesday.

Council member Jessica Anderson called the project “heartening” and said it’s what the town has been seeking. She and Council member Tai Huynh suggested shrinking the 2,400-square-foot units to add smaller units serving more lower-income families.

“I really like that you’ve worked with the neighbors,” Anderson said. “I like that you’ve been so responsive to the boards, and I just think it’s a really exciting product, given our Complete Community (objective) and our housing report, so thank you, and please keep coming back to Chapel Hill.”

More details; public, council feedback

▪ Recreational amenities include a central clubhouse and courtyard; 245 garage and surface parking spaces are planned.

▪ Homes could be built side-by-side or stacked vertically, up to three and four stories tall.

▪ The project would have a street connection to the Aura project and to Somerset Drive. The developer is proposing a $25,000 payment for the Estes Drive stoplight, $25,000 toward transit services, and $5,000 to adjust traffic signal timing

Julie McClintock, a town resident and founder of the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT), told the council to consider how the construction planned and approved for Estes Drive will affect safety in an already dangerous pedestrian and bike corridor.

She suggested red lights at pedestrian crossings, instead of the usual yellow flashing lights, noting that two middle-school students were seriously injured Dec. 31 while trying to cross the road in the Phillips Middle School crosswalk and others have had near misses.

Another resident, Lillian Pierce, asked the developer to preserve more trees, creating a “pocket park” for the area, and to keep stormwater runoff from flooding neighbors’ homes. Consider a stormwater system that can handle a 100-year storm, Council member Amy Ryan said.

The public hearing will continue Oct. 19.

Lullwater Park concept plan

The council also reviewed a concept plan Wednesday night for Lullwater Park, a housing development with 489 apartments and townhomes proposed for 45 acres hugging Interstate 40 in northern Chapel Hill.

The plan sets aside 36 apartments for people earning up to 60% of the area median income — an individual earning up to $36,300 a year or a couple earning up to $41,520. The developer also has agreed to accept federal Section 8 and local housing vouchers.

The project site is between Adair Drive, Chapel Hill North and the Carol Woods community. Only 19.6 acres are buildable due to stream buffers and utility easements on the land, but the housing would be within walking distance of two shopping centers, two bus routes, and a planned stop on the future North-South bus-rapid transit line.

The plan’s four- to six-story buildings would be built in three distinct areas connected by a street and a linear park:

▪ The Hub, with a coffee shop, courtyard, open green space and nearby dog park

▪ The Green, with a second pool, outdoor lounge and a fire pit

▪ The Nature Park with apartments and townhouses.

A concept plan is not an official application. It instead gives advisory boards and the council a chance to provide feedback on plans before they are submitted with an official application.

Public, council feedback

Neighbors in Carol Woods were concerned about the loss of trees, more noise from I-40 traffic, and the potential for stormwater runoff in an area that already experiences flooding during storms. Others noted the cars that could be added to Weaver Dairy Road and the pedestrian safety implications.

Children and families living next to the highway also could face health risks, said Hank Elkins, a neighbor and retired researcher.

“We need more affordable housing, and we need housing accessible to those with justice involvement, but we need housing that is healthy,” Elkins said. “At the least, if you told (tenants) that your children are more likely to get asthma, and you yourself are more likely to die, it might be difficult but it would be honest.”

The council offered several suggestions, including:

▪ Smaller housing units and for-sale condos

▪ Better stormwater runoff controls

▪ Move the retail and other public amenities to a location closer to adjacent neighborhoods

Council member Amy Ryan said she was “excited to see ‘third-place’ amenities like a coffee shop.”

“It would be lovely to get away from the whole ‘apartment needs a pool’ complex. We have huge needs for pickleball, we have huge needs for basketball courts, people need dog parks, like beer dog parks I’m told are super exciting and fun,” Ryan said. “I think it’s a great start with that area you have in The Hub with the coffee shop and the lawns. Build on that and see where you can go.”

She encouraged the developer to add for-sale housing to the mix, while other council members asked for less construction on a small strip of the land between Carol Woods and the Weatherstone neighborhood.

“I understand there are challenges, but it feels like you are putting density in a place, really shoehorning it in, where there probably are other ways of keeping your same number of units but creating a more resident-friendly area,” Council member Michael Parker said.

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