Chapel Hill approves townhouses, a bigger hotel for this busy Erwin Road corner
A developer won approval Wednesday night to expand a nearly 15-year-old hotel near the corner of Erwin Road and Fordham Boulevard and build dozens of townhouses next door.
The council voted unanimously to approve Summit Hospitality Group’s plan for the Extended Stay Residence Inn Hotel. The town had limited the hotel’s height and suites when it was built in 2007.
The 17.7-acre project will add 54 suites in a four-story building to the hotel, which now has 108 suites. It also will add 52 two- and three-story townhomes to a wooded lot north of the hotel near the future home of Christ Community Church.
Four townhomes will be priced for families earning up to 80% of the area median income — an individual earning up to $48,400 a year and a family of four earning up to $69,120. Another three townhomes could be priced at 65% of AMI, roughly $39,325 a year for an individual and $56,160 for a family of four.
The market-rate units could sell for $495,000 to $695,000.
The project also will set aside a 30-foot easement on Dobbins Drive for a greenway, add sidewalks and include a new driveway north of the existing hotel entrance, which would become a right-in, right-out turn only.
Council responds to concerns
Neighbors again brought concerns about traffic and whether the dense, taller buildings would be in harmony with existing homes, apartments and townhouses. Summerfield Crossing residents, who live next door, worry the project could worsen stormwater runoff already flooding their yards and homes.
Traffic is a big concern because Erwin Road and Dobbins Drive are part of a busy transportation corridor.
“It is dangerous to get out onto Erwin Road,” Windhover resident Emily Johnson said. “And even all the way down to (Fordham Boulevard), there’s huge backlogs in traffic every afternoon.”
Residents support development at the site, just not Summit Development Group’s plan, said Rebecca Smith and Michael Hoppe, who also live in Windhover. They noted two letters that dozens of residents had signed opposing the project.
“I and others also pointed to the serious disconnect between what you, mayor and the council members, promote — green spaces, walkability, becoming less car dependent, affordable housing, protecting existing neighborhoods, etc. — and what is currently proposed by the developer,” Hoppe said. “This proposed development ... seems to be violating, in my view, all your principles.”
Council members addressed those concerns Wednesday.
Townhouses and more dense housing options will meet a pressing need, Council members Karen Stegman, Hongbin Gu and Jessica Anderson said. The town has been trying to figure out what would best work there, because the site will be developed at some point, Mayor Pam Hemminger added.
Council member Amy Ryan pointed to the stormwater measures and the “really generous buffers” between the project site and the neighborhoods. The council “did hear you, and we heard your concerns,” she said.
“That said, I think that the town does need to build more densely on the property that we have,” Ryan said. “We’re growing, we need places where people can live, we need them on transit corridors, and we need them in these kinds of places.”
Stormwater, flooding and buffers
The approved plan will add a 100-foot landscaping buffer between the hotel and Summerfield Crossing and a 60-foot buffer between the townhomes and Summerfield Crossing.
The developer also will add a swale — a landscaped, marshy area for collecting and filtering rainwater — to the buffer near Dobbins Drive. Plans also call for expanding the hotel’s existing stormwater pond, and removing an old dam and filling in a farm pond on the townhouse site.
Both the dam and the farm pond add to runoff and flooding, project representative Scott Radway told the town in an Oct. 20 letter. The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has called the dam an “intermediate hazard” to property and people, he noted.
The changes are expected to handle stormwater runoff at levels that would be expected with a 100-year storm, Radway said. It would be a 50% to 75% reduction from the existing conditions, he said.
Town planner Becky McDonnell said staff also think the stormwater swale will help resolve some existing drainage issues. The property owner will have to submit a stormwater inspection and maintenance plan to the town, staff said.
Council member Michael Parker said he was pleased with the developer’s work to mitigate stormwater.
“This project ... is actually going to make things better for residents of Summerfield, and I think that’s something we don’t often get,” he said.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 9:21 AM.
