Developer plans ‘urban style’ apartment building in suburban Chapel Hill neighborhood
A developer is asking Chapel Hill for permission to build an “urban style” apartment building with a central entrance in an area of mostly single-family homes west of Interstate 40 near Pope Road.
The 6.5-acre site — at 5500 Old Chapel Hill Road — is in Durham County but lies just within the Chapel Hill town limits. It would be the second apartment community along that stretch of road; the 176-unit Nova Chapel Hill apartment complex is less than half a mile east.
A concept plan submitted this summer shows 90 apartments in a five-story, U-shaped building wrapped around a courtyard and pool. The building could step down to four stories on the side facing Old Durham Road and have 126 parking spaces in surface lots.
The developer could build a lower level into the site’s steep slopes in order to create a leasing office and indoor amenities.
EB Capital Partners and its development representatives have reached out to the town about including some affordable housing in the project, although the details are not yet available, town staff members said.
A stream on the back side of the property and its vegetative buffer limit what can be built there. The plan shows the rear portion remaining wooded, with trails, a disc golf course and a dog park proposed. A stormwater collection pond separates the construction area from the woods, roughly 35% of which could remain largely undisturbed.
A vacant, single-family home built on the land in 1938 will be demolished.
The developer could reserve 2.5 acres north of the stream for future development, as well as a potential driveway stubout that could be used if neighboring properties are redeveloped, the application noted.
Rezoning, traffic concerns likely
The council, which is expected to review the concept plan in October, would have to rezone the land to allow a more dense apartment building once an application is submitted.
A concept plan is not an official application, but lets the developer talk with the town and the public and get feedback that can be used to improve a proposed project.
Traffic could be a major consideration for the project, since Old Durham Road (which becomes Old Chapel Hill Road in Durham) serves as a major east-west connector between Durham and Chapel Hill.
An N.C. Department of Transportation construction project has been adding sidewalks, bike lanes and roundabouts to the corridor over the last few years.
The $7.3 million, 1.7-mile Durham portion started in 2017 and runs from Garrett Road to Pope Road. That project added roundabouts at Mt. Moriah and Pope roads, plus pedestrian signals and crosswalks at Farrington Road and in front of Githens Middle School.
The $4.6 million construction project for the Chapel Hill portion was delayed last year so that utilities could be moved out of the right of way. Part of the work was done when a roundabout and pedestrian crossings were built for the Wegman’s project near U.S. 15-501.
The remainder of the roughly 1-mile project to add bike lanes, crosswalks and sidewalks is now 60% complete and could wrap up in December, an NCDOT spokesman said.
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