Texas developer proposes apartments, shopping for former Chapel Hill tree farm
The latest plan for a busy Chapel Hill corner got some support Wednesday night, but Town Council members and residents still have concerns about its size, how it will benefit the community, and traffic.
Aura Chapel Hill is the fifth plan in nine years proposed for the 14.7-acre former tree farm at the northeastern corner of Estes Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The land, across the boulevard from Horace Williams Airport, had an existing forestry plan but had not been touched in more than 25 years when it was cut in 2018.
The concept plan Texas-based developer Trinsic Residential Group laid out Wednesday features 355 apartments, 39 townhouses, and 10 live-work units that come with ground-floor commercial space.
A concept plan lets the council and town advisory boards offer feedback the developer can use to draft an official application that would then face more reviews, public hearings and an eventual council vote.
The council also would have to vote to rezone the land for the Aura project.
Retail, housing, traffic
Trinsic’s plan has over a dozen buildings, from one-story shops on MLK Jr. Boulevard to three- and four-story apartment buildings deeper into the site.
It could have roughly 26,000 square feet of office and retail space, officials said — about the size of the ground floor retail space at 140 West Franklin downtown.
Dan Jewell, with project consultant Jewell Coulter Thames, said the smaller retail footprint reflects the site’s limited access. Grocery stores and bigger retailers don’t like locations with only right-in, right-out access for cars, he said.
“That’s why we’re now looking at making more of a community-scale retail space with smaller spaces and hopefully local businesses, local entrepreneurs, local retailers,” Jewell said.
The plan feels more green and is better designed, but still needs work, council member Jessica Anderson said.
Council member Karen Stegman agreed, noting it doesn’t take full advantage of a future North-South bus-rapid transit stop on MLK Jr. Boulevard by adding stores and spaces that would make people want to go there. Scattering retail across the site also could cut down on car trips by neighbors, she said.
“I think if there’s usable retail, then people aren’t going to drive,” Stegman said. “They will walk to the coffee shop and whatever kind of retail you can get there.”
The plan also includes:
▪ 15% affordable apartments for 15 years to those earning 80% of the area median income — $50,900 a year for an individual and $72,700 a year for a family of four.
Council member Tai Huyhn and others said housing that serves families at 60% of the area median income — $38,220 a year for an individual or $54,540 a year for a family of four — and is affordable for at least 30 years would be better.
The town cannot require a developer to include affordable units in rental housing.
▪ A roundabout on Estes Drive, across the street from Amity United Methodist Church, that could provide a second entrance to the YMCA. The N.C. Department of Transportation previously rejected a roundabout and an intersection with a traffic signal at that location. Jewell said at least one of those options is critical to making the project work.
▪ Between 575 and 600 parking spaces above, below and at ground level.
Building size, better green spaces
The site is in the town’s Central West district, an area east of the boulevard, from north of Estes Drive to roughly Mt. Bolus Road, that was envisioned as a mix of housing, public spaces, and smaller, community retail and offices.
Taller buildings will be possible at the Aura site once UNC Hospital Air Care stops using the otherwise-closed Horace Williams Airport. That would remove an airport hazard zone on the eastern portion of the site.
Council member Amy Ryan, who co-chaired the Central West steering committee, supports taller retail buildings.
“Even if it’s going to be a problem getting more retail in here, there certainly could be residential over it that maybe could convert sometime to commercial, but I think one story in this day and age, especially on a major arterial (road), is too low,” Ryan said.
Jewell said the smaller buildings create opportunities for outdoor spaces, plazas and courtyards.
“So we can have this great little neighborhood village center with lots of outdoor dining opportunities, gathering opportunities, those chance encounters people have,” he said.
That community space needs to feel safe despite the amount of traffic moving past the site, Council member Allen Buansi said.
“I certainly would want some more thought put into how to make a community gathering space there something that’s going to be immune from having the background of fast-moving cars there,” he said.
Central West vision
Several residents raised concerns Wednesday about the size of the project and its potential to worsen traffic on both streets. Traffic already backs up a half-mile with commuters. The 152-unit Azalea Estates Gracious Retirement Living community will add more cars when it opens to the east of the site on Estes Drive, noted Scott Buck, who lives nearby.
In 2018, landowner Kathryn Butler clear-cut most of the site — a longtime, certified tree farm — rousing public anger and a citizen petition asking the council for tougher tree protection rules.
The concept plan also does not meet the community’s vision for that corner, residents said. The Central West plan shows up to 175 apartments and 145,000 square feet of commercial, office and hotel space on the Aura site.
What Trinsic has proposed is much more housing than the community wanted, and over half of the total construction planned for the entire Central West district, Tom Henkel said.
“It appears to me that the Aura plan is taking up a big piece of the pie,” Henkel said. “In fact, when you look at the ratio of the total square footage of the Aura plan to Central West, it’s 57% of the allocated building space and 64% of the residential space.”
The town’s Central West plan also showed how traffic from homes, retail and offices on that site would occur at different times of the day, said Fred Lampe. The Aura project would concentrate all of that traffic during already jammed commuting hours, he said.
The town has the option of denying building plans and permits for the Aura site for up to three years under state law, because most of the trees were removed from the property. That would mean nothing could happen with that site at least until the summer of 2021.
