Hundreds of apartments in Chapel Hill OK’d after economy pushes developer out of project
An apartment building near shops and restaurants limped to approval Wednesday night in Chapel Hill, after the developer walked away and the town swapped affordable units for $2 million in cash.
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted 7-2 to approve the revised plan for Aura South Elliott at 200 S. Elliott Road after two years of talks.
The project will displace Extraordinary Ventures (EV), a nonprofit that creates small businesses and jobs for adults with developmental disabilities, with up to 350 apartments, a parking deck and at least 4,000 square feet of commercial space.
The town could use the $2 million payment to subsidize affordable housing projects in other parts of town. EV will have to find a new home, its board President Dan Hatley has said.
Council members Adam Searing and Camille Berry rejected the deal, worried about more traffic on the winding, two-lane road, where delivery trucks and gig drivers park in the street and pedestrians dodge speeding cars when crossing.
The site is across the street from Whole Foods, Village Plaza shopping center and the Berkshire Chapel Hill building in the town’s Blue Hill District.
Searing reminded the council that a key Blue Hill goal is creating more street and sidewalk connections to make it easier for people to get around. Aura’s plan only gives pedestrians access to the site from Couch Road, rather than extending it for cars and pedestrians from Franklin Street to South Elliott Road, he said.
Berry also balked at the loss of affordable housing, a concern shared by other council members who voted for the project.
Mayor Jess Anderson said she’s OK with a cash payment for housing and with a pedestrian greenway instead of a road, because the town also is working toward an Everywhere to Everywhere greenway network for recreation and commuting.
“If this had been brought a couple years ago, I think I would have wanted more. I think given current conditions, I’m not surprised that it is not the project that it might once have been,” Anderson said.
Economic reality stalling projects
Trinsic Residential Group has two mixed-use projects underway in Chapel Hill. Aura Booth Park could begin leasing later this year at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Estes Drive; Aura Blue Hill is pending construction on Fordham Boulevard.
Most projects in the Blue Hill District, including Aura Blue Hill, are subject to a form-based code and don’t require council approval, but lots on the south site of Elliott Road, including the Aura site, remain under council authority.
The developer first proposed Aura Blue Hill in 2023 and negotiated with the town until February, when the discussion was delayed twice. Trinsic cut its losses and dropped out, leaving its project team to return Wednesday with the revised plan.
Susana Dancy, a project consultant and owner of Rockwood Development Group, said other developers are interested in the project, but economic conditions, from tariffs to interest rates, have made it more financially difficult than when first proposed.
That’s especially true for projects that have parking decks, said Dancy, who previously led the town’s Community Design Commission.
Council member Theo Nollert and others continued to press for ways to squeeze out more affordable housing, from reducing the parking to removing the commercial space. Dancy explained that subsidizing each affordable apartment would cost the future owner “way more than $600 a month” in rent, fees and other costs, making it difficult to remain financially viable.
“Right now, construction is still very high, rents are very flat and the larger economic things that are going on have creating a very risk-averse environment,” she said. “Even in a desirable market like Chapel Hill, we are watching investors and developers walk away because of the number of internalized subsidies and the higher standards that Chapel Hill expects.”
But as more council members lined up against the project, Dancy offered to seek $2 million for the town. Alternately, she said, the developer could price 5% of the housing for people earning up to 65% of the area median income, or a maximum of $52,650 a year.
Council member Melissa McCullough advocated for pragmatism instead of an ideal that’s out of reach. Over 300 more apartments on a bus line, even priced at market rate, will help address a critical need for housing and get some people out of their cars, she said.
“The fact that Trinsic abandoned about a million dollars worth of work and ran screaming into the night means that we are in situation where things aren’t going to be getting done,” McCullough said. “That’s housing we don’t have, and jobs we don’t have, and I think that it’s time for us to be really practical about what we can get and what we can’t get.”
The council chose to take the cash instead of roughly 15 affordable apartments. The money could be used to leverage up to 50 units of affordable housing through a public-private partnership, town staff said.
Aura South Elliott project details
▪ What’s there now: Extraordinary Ventures and two wooded lots
▪ Proposed plan: 330 to 350 apartments — 10% affordable to households earning up to 65% and up to 80% of the town’s area median income. Roughly 18,500 square feet of ground-floor leasing and commercial space. A pool, courtyards and a parking deck.
▪ Revised housing offer: The developer came back with a plan to make 5% of the apartments affordable to households earning up to 65% AMI, or pay the town $1.125 million.
▪ What was approved: 315 to 350 apartments, a minimum of 4,000 square feet for commercial, and $2 million for the town to use toward affordable housing or some other use. A pool, courtyards and a parking deck.
▪ Building height: Five to six stories, or up to 65 feet tall
▪ Transportation: Drivers would access the parking deck from a private road connecting Signature HealthCare on East Franklin Street to South Elliott Road. A shorter, less-busy path on Couch Road, between East Franklin Street and South Elliott Road, will be limited to pedestrians and cyclists. The site is near multiple bus routes.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM.
