Developer has plans for workforce housing on this busy Chapel Hill highway corridor
Update: The council’s March 23 review has been delayed. Check the town website at townofchapelhill.org for updates.
More apartments and townhouses for working families could be coming to a busy stretch of N.C. 54 between the Downing Creek and Meadowmont communities in eastern Chapel Hill.
Developer Northwood Ravin paid $10.3 million last year for 36 acres off Stancell Drive, land records show. In January, the developer submitted a concept plan for 375 garden-style apartments and 75 townhouses in several three- to four-story buildings.
Roughly 1.5 acres near Barbee Chapel Road could be reserved for affordable housing. The details would be worked out once a conditional zoning application is submitted.
Northwood Ravin has built mixed-use projects around Chapel Hill, including Carraway Village on Eubanks Road and Carolina Square on West Franklin Street, as well as apartment communities at Chapel Hill North, Chapel Watch Village and Cosgrove Hill.
The latest site is in the Chapel Hill town limits but also in Durham County. It could become a village for “underserved moderate income/workforce and starter family audiences,” the plan noted, and could be served by two driveways off Stancell Drive and a third at the intersection of Barbee Chapel Road and Finley Forest Drive.
The southwestern corner of the site, which includes streams and wetlands, could provide recreation space and trails, with additional courtyards elsewhere on the site. A stream on the northern end of the site could be restored, the plan said.
Other key issues include traffic and stormwater management, since the site sits in a low-lying drainage area for Morgan Creek, Little Creek and Jordan Lake, and over 40,000 cars pass by each day on N.C. 54. There are Chapel Hill Transit bus stops and a park-and-ride lot within walking distance, but the surrounding area can be a challenge for pedestrians.
The Chapel Hill Town Council could review the concept plan this spring. A concept plan is a rough draft that lets the developer seek feedback from the Town Council and town advisory boards, which then can be used to craft an official application.
Woodmont failed but agreement stands
Hillmont is not the first plan proposed for the site. In 2008, the previous owner Capital Associates won approval from the council for Woodmont, a development with 60 condos and 484,000 square feet of office space.
That permit expired without anything being built, however, in part because of the 2009 recession and also because the council set conditions that made the project too expensive, said Dwight Bassett, the town’s economic development officer.
The council could negotiate with Northwood Ravin for new conditions if an official application is submitted, but a separate agreement that Capital Associates signed with a neighbor in 2008 would still apply.
That agreement gives UBS Realty Investors — and any future owner of the adjacent Morgan at Chapel Hill Apartments — 30 days to reject changes to the southern end of Northwood Ravin’s site. It also regulates landscaping and community rules that residents of the apartment complex and any new housing must follow.
Northwood Ravin’s efforts to reach the Morgan at Chapel Hill property owners have been unsuccessful so far, Bassett said. He deferred other questions to Adam Golden, Northwood Ravin vice president of development.
Golden did not respond to The News & Observer’s email seeking additional information.
Housing need more than commercial
Bassett told the town’s Council Economic Sustainability Committee last year that the site has attracted interest since 2008 from multiple developers, including one who wanted to build a Costco store and another weighing a mixed-use development.
Orange County also explored the possibility of a light-rail station surrounded by dense businesses and homes, but that plan fell apart when the Durham-Orange light-rail project was upended in 2019.
Northwood Ravin also considered a mix of housing, shops and offices, but it became clear that the location, limited access and visibility were too challenging, David Laube, with Noell Consulting Group, told the council committee last year.
A study commissioned by Capital Associates found that the town might get interest from a specific retailer looking to build in the area, but it’s “not a very strong site” to build with the hope that someone might want to set up shop there, Laube said.
On the other hand, housing would meet an identified town need, Laube and Northwood Ravin officials said, citing a 2021 study that identified a need for 485 new units each year for the next 20 years to keep up with the town’s housing demand. Only 10% of those units should be built for student renters, the study found.
Roughly 35% of the residents living around the Hillmont site are 18 to 34 years old — the second-highest percentage of millennials and students outside of downtown Chapel Hill — and less than half of the existing housing is renter-occupied, Laube said.
His group’s study “screams to us that this is ideal for residential development, perhaps a mix of multifamily rental, as well as for-sale product types, which in today’s day and age basically means townhomes at the kind of density levels that this site would require,” he said.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
