Affordable housing approved for Chatham Park. Will it be enough?
Chatham Park developers will build 1,650 affordable homes and apartments in the planned 7,068-acre community under a policy worked out Monday with the town board.
Developers could face a delay, however, depending on the final route of a parkway through northern Chatham Park.
The Pittsboro Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to accept an amount of affordable housing equal to 7.5% of Chatham Park’s 22,000 market-rate housing units. Commissioner John Bonitz voted against the policy, citing issues that he said have not been discussed and last-minute changes made Monday night.
“I just think that this is highly inappropriate policymaking to be editing an important document like this that has massive implications for decades to come, and I’m astonished that this board went along with it again,” Bonitz said. “Approving an element based on verbal edits not yet put in writing. I’m just astonished. I’m kind of horrified, really.”
Chatham Park will bring thousands of homes, roughly 60,000 people and 22 million square feet of business, medical and commercial construction to Pittsboro by 2045. The development covers land between U.S. 15-501 and the Haw River, both north and south of U.S. 64, and will dramatically alter Pittsboro, which had a population of 4,195 in 2019.
Chatham Park’s affordable housing could be built within the development or up to a half-mile outside its boundaries. Chatham Park Investors also had offered to donate 93 acres of land, as an alternative for affordable housing, to the town.
The approved policy varied only slightly from what was presented in Monday’s meeting agenda. However, it was a big change from the 1% affordable housing that Chatham Park Investors offered in 2016.
The policy will give the developer a density bonus of eight more market-rate homes for every affordable home that’s built. Increased density is a key factor in applying for public transit funding and affordable housing tax credits, Commissioner Michael Fiocco and Mayor Jim Nass noted.
The town will create a nonprofit housing trust and work with the county tax office to allocate 2.5% of the town’s tax revenues paid by Chatham Park property owners for 30 years to affordable housing.
Town Manager Chris Kennedy estimated that at full buildout, Chatham Park property owners would pay $32 million a year in property taxes, roughly $801,000 of which could be used each year for affordable housing.
The affordable housing policy was the last of 12 “additional elements” that addressed specific issues in the Chatham Park master plan. A development agreement was approved in October that lays out how construction will proceed over the next 25 years.
Chatham Park Investors will have to submit detailed affordable housing plans, including how much sewer capacity is available, to the town for approval. The town has allocated most of its remaining sewer capacity to Chatham Park and is working with the developer and with the town of Sanford to get more for future residential and commercial growth.
Bonitz urged the board to consider a 15% affordable housing policy and respond to feedback from affordable housing advocates before voting Monday. He unsuccessfully suggested delaying the vote to Dec. 13.
Fiocco said this was his last chance to vote on an issue “dear to my heart.” He and Nass lost their recent re-election bids.
“I think it’s a really solid proposal, and I think it’s a unique opportunity to establish ourselves as a community that embraces affordable housing and stands behind our word and walks the walk,” Fiocco said. “We’ve got a lot of incentives in here that are going to provide just the type of incentive to get developers in here to build these units, not the least of which is Habitat (for Humanity).”
North Chatham Parkway
The commissioners also voted unanimously Monday to ask the N.C. Department of Transportation to study an eighth alternate route for the proposed North Chatham Parkway.
The parkway is the first of two routes that will connect U.S. 15-501 and U.S. 64, creating a bypass around downtown Pittsboro. The outcome of this discussion could have larger implications for what happens to other Chatham County residents who live in the path of a future Southern Chatham Parkway, which will complete the loop from U.S. 64 to U.S. 15-501 South.
As proposed, the 2.7-mile North Chatham Parkway route would cut through the end of Country Routt Brown Road in the North Woods neighborhood, a rural area surrounded by Chatham Park’s 2,224-acre North Village neighborhood. The proposed route would isolate three North Woods neighbors from the rest of their community and run within 20 feet of one home.
North Village is one of five villages planned for Chatham Park and has 11 sections, each of which will require the town to also approve site and subdivision plans, as well as individual permits. Part of the North Village is open or under construction, including homes, the Penguin Place retail center and the Mosaic mixed-use neighborhood.
NCDOT and Chatham Park officials considered seven parkway routes through the environmentally sensitive land along the Haw River before choosing the current option. The commissioners asked NCDOT officials to consider an eighth route in August that would be completely on Chatham Park land, rather than split the North Woods neighborhood.
NCDOT and Chatham Park officials have noted previous town planning documents that support the current route. The commissioners have said those documents were only concepts.
In a Nov. 5 letter, NCDOT officials asked the town to confirm its request and noted that changing the route would affect several approved development plans, including the North Village Small Area Plan and the Mellott project, which will add over 1,300 residential units and 785,000 square feet of commercial space. A new route also would need U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review and approval.
North Woods neighbor Mark Pavao has said the current parkway route was chosen in part because it’s easier to serve the 179-acre Mellott property, which Chatham Park developers bought south of North Woods in 2016, years after the town plans were drafted.
Commissioner Kyle Shipp said Monday he was disappointed that NCDOT officials had not yet acted on the town’s wishes. Other commissioners agreed, with Nass noting the board “was pretty firm in wanting a full study” of the eighth alternative.
NCDOT officials should be able to complete the study in 60 to 90 days, Fiocco said, while acknowledging the potential for the current, “very surgical” route through North Woods to work for Chatham Park and reduce traffic in downtown Pittsboro.
“Honestly, I will say that Alternate 6 is a very good option given the obstacles and the various demands of such a route,” Fiocco said.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 8:13 AM.
