The Chapel Hill Town Council recently reviewed two proposed housing developments, one along South Elliott Road and the other near the county line at 15-501 South. Both projects seek to provide the town with affordable housing and green spaces.
Here are the details about each project and highlights of the elected officials’ feedback from the January 15 meeting.
AURA SOUTH ELLIOTT
Chapel Hill Town Council members opened a legislative hearing for a conditional rezoning application at 200 South Elliott Road and unanimously passed a motion to continue the hearing on February 12.
From Trinsic Residential Group, Aura South Elliott features five-to-six story mixed-use buildings, including 334 multifamily units and ground-floor retail. The site is currently home to the nonprofit Extraordinary Ventures, and the council first provided feedback on the project in March 2023, where they requested the use of a standard zoning district, trails and amenities, and more connectivity through the site.
The council also noted how affordable housing would be expected on the property. The current design sets ten percent of the units aside as affordable units, serving families earning 80 and 65 percent of the Area Median Income. Several council members emphasized the need for even more affordable units, and particularly serving the latter percentage.
A proposed rendering of Aura South Elliott. (Photo via Trinsic Residential Group.)
Repeated praises for the project centered on its ability to provide retail and density in a needed area. The design also features public and private amenities, like a stormwater pond accompanied by benches and trails, a pool for residents, and public courtyards outside the commercial spaces.
Most council members applauded the design’s multi-use path, which lines Couch Road and connects to South Elliott by traveling through the site. But the path also raised a repeated concern about the property’s limited access points.
Currently, the design includes one private entrance from South Elliott, and several council members suggested Couch Road as an additional point of entry to ease traffic flow for residents and retail deliveries.
“Right now it’s already congested,” Council Member Camille Berry said. “Right now we already have issues for emergency vehicles. Right now we already have issues with people trying to cross there. And if you put people there, which I’m all about more housing and density, but that means they’re going to cross the road. And right at that bend is very dangerous.”
A proposed rendering of Aura South Elliott. (Photo via Trinsic Residential Group.)
However, the project’s transportation plan noted a full street connection at Couch Road as “infeasible,” according to Jessie Hardesty, a planner on the project. She explained how it could complicate parking, separate the site’s buildings, and eat into developable acreage.
A connected roads analysis also anticipated less traffic along Couch Road, favoring high bike and pedestrian benefit instead because of its connection to University Place and EastGate, which Council Member Melissa McCullough admired.
“I go on the Bolin Creek Trail and cut through those apartments that then come back out on Couch Road, but then I have to go onto Franklin to get to EastGate,” McCullough said. “This will make a huge difference for people like me.”
Council Member Elizabeth Sharp described connectivity and traffic flow as tradeoffs for the property, and while not unanimous, the majority of council members voted for the greenway connection over the full road connection.
FLINTROCK KNOLL RESIDENTIAL
The Chapel Hill Town Council also shared comments on the concept design of a project proposed at 1609 U.S. 15-501, and unanimously passed them along to the developers at the meeting.
In 2023, the council approved a resolution to extend its water and sewer management boundary further south toward Chatham County, allowing for potentially more affordable housing and transit options along the corridor. Flintrock Knoll Residential could bring the area 155 townhome units, with at least 20 affordable units. It is also a partnership between Bold Development and Orange County Habitat for Humanity.
A proposed rendering of Flintrock Knoll Residential. (Photo via Bold Development.)
“I’m really excited to see townhomes in this area,” Mayor Jess Anderson said. “This is exactly what we envisioned when we went through the slightly bananas process of expanding WASMPBA.”
And Anderson stressed the need to start working on bringing multimodal transit options to the southern part of the corridor.
“Which is a little bit more for us to figure out than you,” she told the project team. “But I think this is the time. We’re getting applications down here, so we need to figure out how this is going to work.”
“Staff, we really need your help with greenways, bus stops, all the things going to the county line,” the mayor continued.
Council Member Karen Stegman described the site’s existing green and natural areas as an “asset.” According to Dan Jewell, a landscape architect on the project, about 40 percent of the site would be natural tree coverage and undeveloped land.
A greenway trail would also connect all areas of the neighborhood and its planned open spaces. Jewell said these could include picnic areas, seating, community gardens, and playgrounds. He said the property is also unique for its three large streams, which would bookend the residential units.
The design also plans for a non-residential parcel at the property’s entryway at 15-501. Jewell explained how Chapel Hill has a “huge need” for more child care spaces, and several council members liked his suggestion that it be a daycare.
“I actually think that’s really nice to have it not be a road through a forest to this bubble of development,” Sharp said about the non-residential area. “I feel like it makes everything mesh a little better.”
During the public comment portion of the meeting, a repeated concern centered on how the development would be sensitive to neighboring homeowners and communities, especially when building potential road connections.
“I just want to assure residents that we are not trying to annex any of your land for a road,” Council Member Paris Miller-Foushee added. “We have stub-outs for a number of reasons. Safety is one of those.”
Anderson said it will be important for the developers to converse with the neighbors to figure out the site’s “edges” and ease concerns.
To view the full Town Council meeting, click here.
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