Homestead Road has been an area in Chapel Hill that has seen the construction of many new communities, and Tri Pointe Townhomes aims to be among the next developments along the road. The Town of Chapel Hill and Gurlitz Architectural Group held a public information hearing on July 20 to discuss the property’s future.
One hundred single-family homes are proposed for land on 2217 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill, with 15% of the new developments designed to be affordable housing. The property is between the protected Carolina Forest and the Courtyards at Homestead Road community for older homeowners.
Richard Gurlitz of Gurlitz Architectural Group said the project’s major concepts are to create townhomes for single family use, meet the goals of the future land use plan, provide missing middle housing, meet the town’s affordable housing goals and preserve accessible mature forests.
“The development program in a little more detail is to put 103 townhomes in. 86 of them are 26 foot wide with two car garages — 17 of them are 22 feet wide with one car garage,” Gurlitz said. “They all have driveways that support additional cars so that if people are filling up their garages with things other than cars there’s space on the street for them to park their car.”
Recreational opportunities are also offered at the housing facilities, including pathways through the sites, exercise stations, connections to the trails and community gathering spaces.
An overview of the current site plan for 2217 Homestead Road and the Tri Pointe Townhomes project. (Photo via Gurlitz Architectural Group.)
If constructed, Tri Pointe Townhomes will not be far from another potential development on Homestead Road. In 2021, Chapel Hill approved the 2200 Homestead Project with the goal of increasing housing accessibility to residents. The project includes rental apartments, duplexes and townhomes available at mixed-income prices.
Gurlitz said that in the Tri Pointe Townhomes, the affordable housing units will be dispersed evenly throughout the community.
The developers in the meeting said they wanted to increase focus on Vision Zero to prioritize safety for pedestrians and cyclists. According to the Town of Chapel Hill, Vision Zero is a global strategy designed to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
Community members had the opportunity on Wednesday night to share their thoughts about the proposal element of the project — something Chapel Hill resident Diane Morgan said during the meeting she appreciated.
“I noted, and you can actually see it in the design,” said Morgan, “there is a narrow road connection at Kipling Lane that will allow safe access for walkers and cyclists between the two neighborhoods and will allow both neighborhoods access to the Carolina North Forest trails, and it will also allow unimpeded access for emergency vehicles which is very important for our senior population in our neighborhood as well as the population in our next-door neighborhoods.”
The developers also discussed the stormwater management system, since the new townhomes will border the Courtyards at Homestead Road. The proposal says channels will run off through the storm drain piping in the roads to a stormwater management pond at the north end of the location. Inlets will be created along the Kipling Drive connection, and two wet retention ponds will collect the water draining from the site.
Tim Summerville, the director of the construction service company Stewart, noted the developer is proposing to capture all the water that runs off the new community’s berm, which he said has two purposes.
“We put that berm in the back — one, for privacy, but the real emphasis behind putting that berm was to catch stormwater runoff so it doesn’t run onto neighboring properties,” Summerville said. “We are swelling that water but we do have some inlets within that swell that pick up that water to direct it to the south side. We put inlets along the Kipling Drive connection as far down as we can physically make it.”
To watch the public information meeting and find applicant materials for Tri Pointe Townhomes, visit the Town of Chapel Hill’s website.
Photo Credits via Gurlitz Architectural Group
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What about those mature trees that separate the two housing developments? Gurlitz promises to ”preserve accessible mature forests.” Unless something has changed, Gurlitz et al plans to cut down ALL those beautiful mature trees. NO! It is criminal to cut those trees in the name of development. Go, take a good look. Whatever happened to Chapel Hill’s Tree Ordinance? It is totally absent in all the developments along Homestead. They talk about Climate Change but then cut majestic, mature trees that are known for their carbon sequestration. Cutting those trees should be a deal breaker.
To JN:
A lot of trees were cut down to build your house as well. What’s so different?