As the Town of Chapel Hill is looking to improve its housing index and variety, the town council recently approved one long-term project and sent another back to the drawing board.
During its meeting on June 7, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved (with Karen Stegman absent) the conditional zoning for the South Creek development. The project is where the Obey Creek complex was initially planned to be built, across U.S. 15-501 from Southern Village. Unlike its predecessor, though, South Creek is focused more on housing than on providing retail opportunities.
Beechwood Homes, the applicant and property owner, will construct a mixed-use development with between 688 and 815 new housing units – a mix of rental apartments and both condos and townhomes for sale. The 42-acre space will also include plaza areas and roads connecting Sumac Drive and Market Street from Southern Village, installing pedestrian crosswalks and lighting.
In the presentation on Wednesday, Lee Bowman with Beechwood Homes said his group took the council’s comments of adding more density to heart. Increasing the stories of several buildings and adding one other to the site made it so South Creek will now offer 139 more units.
A diagram of the improved density Beechwood Homes offered to the Chapel Hill Town Council on June 7. The buildings with more housing added on are highlighted in different colors. (Photo via Beechwood Homes.)
Bowman also described how the property improved its affordable offerings, as they committed 15 percent of their condos and townhomes to being priced for lower costs.
“When it’s all said and done,” he said, “in the higher density [option] we could [see] over 100 affordable housing units in the development. And the lower range is still 88.”
Council Member Camille Berry commended the South Creek team for taking the council’s feedback, doing research, and considering it in their final proposal. While the elected official’s requests for a pedestrian bridge or tunnel proved to be too expensive, the addition of several affordable units ended up being possible based on the changes to density.
“Thank you for listening to us about the affordable units for sale and understanding our goals,” said Berry. “[They are] to house people as much as possible and not just in rental [units].”
A rending of the pedestrian crossing at U.S. 15-501 and Sumac Road, which will lead into a later phase of South Creek in Chapel Hill. (Photo via Beechwood Homes.)
One way the new plan aligns with Obey Creek is land preservation. The South Creek developers says they plan to maintain 80 acres east of Wilson Creek as woods. A caveat during Wednesday’s approval by the town council, however, is Beechwood negotiating with an outside group over the land. Bowman said he cannot name the group and it has to purchase the land from Beechwood in order to preserve it — instead of being included as guaranteed conservation with the town. But he insisted the organization plans to install trails and amenities for South Creek, and the Chapel Hill community, to use in the forest.
“From a confidentiality standpoint,” Bowman described, “they do not want us to mention their name. But they are a trusted and a great partner, so we’re very excited about this opportunity.”
Council Member Adam Searing said that it’s this inclusion of the 80 acres of largely undisturbed green space that helped secure his support of South Creek.
“While I’d like to see a little less density, I think this is a pretty good project,” he said at the meeting. “The preservation area is the biggest concern I have. But hearing the applicant’s attorney and the applicant’s commitment to work with our town manager in order to come up with some language that would allow them to put the conservation property into a conservation easement… if we do that, I think this looks pretty good.”
A photo of the Obey Creek property, circa 2015. The project was meant to bring mixed-use development to land along U.S. 15-501, but was abandoned and never built after it failed to attract big box stores to its retail spaces. Everything west of the creek shown in the map will be preserved in the new South Creek development, according to Beechwood Homes. (Photo via East West Partners.)
No timeline for construction is listed on the Town of Chapel Hill web page for the project, but Bowman said that Beechwood will build out South Creek in phases. He said the portions across from Market Street will be built first, which includes a plaza surrounded by buildings with ground-floor retail or restaurants and housing on the upper floors.
Another large-scale housing project was shared at the June 7 meeting: Chapel Hill Crossings, which is a proposed development off Old Durham Road near the county line. Across 16 acres at two sites — which are on opposite sides of the road — EB Capital Partners seeks to build 548 units, which are a mix of apartments, cottages, rowhouses and townhomes. Beyond the housing variety, the developer touted plans to create walkability and retail space to the area with the goal of better fitting Chapel Hill’s Complete Communities framework.
An aerial rendering of the Chapel Hill Crossings development, as proposed on June 7, 2023. The two sites on either side of Old Durham Road previously were separate projects proposed by the same developer. (Photo via EB Partners.)
The town council, though, was not enthused by the current proposal. Most of the comments shared Wednesday pointed to size and placement of the apartment buildings in the development, saying they were tedious for the area and not creative. Instead of carrying the public hearing to later this month, the council voted to move back Chapel Hill Crossings’ next appearance to September, giving planners more time to regroup.
Council Member Amy Ryan voiced support for the project’s goals, but specifically pointed to the five- to seven-story apartment building as a sticking point. She said she believes the massing would be too visible above the tree line and that styles of housing for an urban environment does not fit the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I think you’re trying to bring a good thing – I think this may not be the place for the vision you have,” Ryan said. “The walkability is great, I like the variety of housing types you have. I think it got very ambitious and then it required that big apartment building to work…and that’s a problem for me.”
Council Member Michael Parker said he remembers it being an “interesting project” when the two sites were in their concept plan stage. But with the larger apartment building and mix of everything being offered, he said he believes it “ran off the rails.”
“I think that the density, or at least your solution to how you accommodate the density, just isn’t working here for me – or probably anybody else,” said Parker. “I’m not going to go into a lot of details, because I think the fundamentals of this project are wrong and I’m not going to get into the little things until we get the big things fixed.”
The town council’s consideration of these two housing projects comes as another big decision looms: proposed changes to Chapel Hill’s laws on single-family zoning. Town staff crafted an amendment to the current Land Use Management Ordinance which would allow for more duplexes to be constructed in all zoning districts currently listed for single-family homes. The proposal also suggests triplexes and quadplexes as “compatible infill” for existing developments and single-family neighborhoods where certain development standards are met.
Most recently, hours of public comment were held during the council’s May 24 meeting and community members have sent dozens of emails both for and against the proposal. The town council is set to next consider the text amendment at its final meeting of the summer: June 21.
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