CHAPEL HILL - Grubb Properties has withdrawn its controversial plan to replace the Glen Lennox apartments and shopping center, one of the state's oldest.

The move came last month, two days after company president Clay Grubb told the Chapel Hill Town Council that initial plans to tear down and rebuild the neighborhood were "done hastily."

Grubb now plans to participate in a neighborhood planning process that could lead to new zoning restrictions for the half-century-old property. The developer will likely resubmit a new plan in the future.

"Our decision to withdraw the initial concept plan was really made to allow the focus on working together with the neighborhood community on the conservation process before coming together to form a new idea," said Jim Schaafsma, senior vice president of planning and development for Grubb Properties.

When the company announced redevelopment plans last spring, residents of the cottage-style apartments and their neighbors mobilized, sending letters to Town Hall, creating a Web site at www.saveglenlennox.org and selling T-shirts.

Senior town planner Kay Pearlstein said it was unusual for a developer to withdraw a concept plan before presenting it to the Chapel Hill Community Design Commission, the first step in the development process. The concept plan was supposed to go under review at a commission meeting Aug. 20.

Chapel Hill's Planning Board will meet Aug. 19 to begin a separate process that could lead to Glen Lennox being labeled a Neighborhood Conservation District, a designation meant to protect individual communities' character. At the meeting, the board will schedule a public information meeting for residents to learn more about the NCD process and to vote on moving forward.

"I'm pleased as punch because they [Grubb Properties] trotted out these plans without anybody's input," said Greg Brusseau, a Flemington Road resident and member of Glen Lennox's neighborhood steering committee. "To involve the community is really the right thing."

In an e-mail message sent June 27 to Pearlstein, Josh Gurlitz of GGA Architects withdrew the plans on behalf of the development team. The initial plan proposed replacing the 440 apartment units and the shopping center, between N.C. 54 and U.S. 15-501, with a multistory mix of housing and retail space.

Glen Lennox was built to alleviate the housing shortage after World War II, and it was the first large apartment complex in Chapel Hill. Grubb Properties has owned the property for more than 20 years.