Developer proposes hundreds of apartments and townhomes on Chapel Hill-Durham border
Chapel Hill Town Council members peppered a developer with questions Wednesday about a proposed project on the eastern end of town that could offer affordable housing and accept federal housing vouchers.
Few complexes in Chapel Hill accept vouchers, but Michael Skena, regional director of acquisitions and development for Toll Brothers Apartment Living, said they might even accept them for the market-rate units in the proposed Barbee Chapel Apartments.
However, the proposal fell short of meeting the town’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, which requires 15% of for-sale units in new developments to be sold at a more affordable price. The developers would like to fill the gap with affordable rental units, which are not covered by the ordinance, Skena said.
Barbee Chapel Apartments could have several apartment and townhome buildings — ranging from three to five stories — around the 10.5-acre site. There would be several green spaces, as well as pedestrian improvements.
It is in a part of Chapel Hill that lies within the Durham County limits, and sits behind the Valero gas station and across the street from the Finley Forest community. It would need a rezoning to add taller, more dense construction.
Adding more affordable for-sale housing is not possible, Skena said, because financing and construction costs have increased, and rents have stabilized. It also costs more to build affordable housing as part of a market-rate project using the same materials than it does to build a separate affordable housing building using less-expensive materials, he said.
But he offered to think about it and talk with town staff to see if they could find cost-savings that would help add more affordable units. Toll Brothers has a project in Washington, D.C., for example, that offers 20% affordable units, he said.
Council member Paris Miller-Foushee called the Chapel Hill affordable housing offer, at less than 10% of the units, “disappointing.”
Council member Tai Huyhn agreed, urging Toll Brothers to talk with local nonprofit housing agencies, all of whom have waiting lists of families who need housing. He suggested the developer also might get more of what he wants if the town gets more affordable units.
“This is a pretty significant upzoning. There’s a pretty significant list of variances that you’re asking us to grant, so potato, potahto,” Huynh said.
Project details
▪ Developer: Toll Brothers Apartment Living; Rockwood Development Group
▪ Location: 10.5 acres at 5101 Barbee Chapel Road
▪ Zoning: Residential use, but the proposed zoning would allow more housing and taller buildings
▪ Current use: Mostly wooded, with 10 single-family homes
▪ Proposed use: 350 apartments and townhomes in three 4- to 5-story buildings and four 3-story buildings
▪ Affordable housing: 31 units, at least 45% of which could be priced at 65% of the area median income and the rest at 80%, serving individuals earning up to $53,520 a year or couples earning up to $61,120. Housing vouchers would be accepted.
▪ Parking: 495 surface and garage parking spaces
▪ Getting around: Two driveways and a pedestrian and bike trail from the site to N.C. 54 could be added to Barbee Chapel Road, plus future connections to surrounding land. A pedestrian crossing with a flashng traffic signal is proposed between the site and the Finley Forest community.
Rural character, pedestrians and stormwater
Only two residents spoke about the project during the initial public hearing Wednesday, including Henry Lister, a homeowner whose property abuts the Hillmont development site east of the Barbee Chapel site.
Developer Northwood Ravin is behind that project, which could bring 500 townhomes and apartments to 36 acres off Stancell Drive.
Barbee Chapel Apartments could be a great project, Lister said, but the downsized buffers make it wrong for that site. Larger buffers at Meadowmont and other projects on N.C. 54 East are there because of conversations 20 years ago about how that entrance to town should remain somewhat rural in nature, he said.
“Entryway protection is central to this potential zoning change you’re considering, and that really has to be one of the primary considerations with regard to this zoning. In fact, we might even want to consider that this effort by Toll Brothers is sprawl,” he said. “It’s not to human scale. It doesn’t match the other developments around it and residences around it at all.”
Council member Amy Ryan agreed with Lister about the nature of the site.
“This is an entryway into the country. It will develop a little bit,” Ryan said. “This is not a ‘bring the frontages up to the road, because it’s going to be a walkable, urban area.’ This is a transition end of the county.”
The other public speaker, Frank Herlant, owns property that Toll Brothers wants to buy. He spoke about the changes that he’s seen over the last 25 years and about how his family enjoys living near UNC’s Friday Center and using the trails and the tunnel under N.C. 54 to walk to Meadowmont, where they shop for groceries. Apartments are the best use for the Barbee Chapel site, he added.
“Let’s bring the people closer to Chapel Hill — it’s only two miles from downtown — and allow people to utilize all the services within town, instead of having to drive in from Durham or your rural buffers,” he said.
Getting people out of their cars and reducing the need for acres of parking lots has been a key council goal. Council member Michael Parker called the amount of surface parking planned for Barbee Chapel Apartments “ugly.” He and other council members also noted the potential stormwater problems that a large amount of pavement and rooftops could cause.
Skena agreed to have his team look at more intensive stormwater controls. However, he brushed off a request to leave wider landscaped buffers behind the gas station, in response to another council question.
The adjacent car wash already has an extra wide buffer, he said. That buffer was requested by a previous council, along with a fence and berms, during the approval process for the car wash to shield nearby homes from bright lighting and noise.
The council voted to continue the public hearing May 24.