The Chapel Hill community is facing both a shortage of available housing and a shortage of affordable housing. While the former issue is a driving factor behind a project brought to the town government, the latter issue is what led elected officials to send it back to the drawing board on September 13.
The Reserve at Blue Hill is the redevelopment proposal for the current Kings Arms Apartments off Ephesus Church Road – and while the units are older and may need replacing, the Chapel Hill Town Council suggested seeking a different plan.
The 65 naturally affordable units are owned by the North Carolina-based Phillips Management Group and were originally constructed in the 1960s. The group submitted an application – not yet a formal rezoning request – to redevelop Kings Arms into a new community: the Reserve at Blue Hill, with 212 apartments on the 7-acre site.
Designer Richard Gurlitz represented the applicant at the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, sharing the concept plan for the apartment community and saying it tries to offer a transition from the other redevelopment along Ephesus Church Road to the residential areas bordering Kings Arms.
Concept art for the Reserve at Blue Hill, which would replace the Kings Arms Apartments with an updated design and three- to five-story apartment buildings. (Photo via Gurlitz Architectural/Phillips Management Group.)
An aerial rendering of the design for the Reserve at Blue Hill submitted to the Town of Chapel Hill. (Photo via Gurlitz Architectural/Phillips Management Group.)
While the project was initially meant to be reviewed in June before being pushed until after a summer break, Gurlitz said the delay led Kings Arms’ ownership to have more conversations about how to accommodate the housing community’s current residents once redevelopment begins. Beyond asking for a longer grace period before construction is required to begin – the applicant wants a 48-month period instead one year after receiving its conditional zoning approval – the architect said no solution has been decided.
“We don’t have an answer today,” said Gurlitz. “But I think what we’ve accomplished is: we’ve recognized what the issues are, we’ve figured out what available resources there are in the community – both with Orange County and the Town of Chapel Hill. We’re in the process [of figuring it out.]”
That lack of clarity, though, led to significant concern shared by both Chapel Hill Town Council members and Kings Arms residents on Wednesday night. The current plan would see the number of affordable units cut in half – and even with them marked down from market price, residents still shared concerns about it being more than they can afford to pay.
Victory Washington said to council members that she moved to Chapel Hill after being forced to relocate from her Brooklyn home ten years ago. Working as a UNC staff member and having her adult son live at home with her, she said another rent increase would likely leave them unable to live in the Kings Arms community.
“Where will we go,” Washington asked. “We don’t have family here. What will happen to us? We [have] worked in the community for the last 10 years. We don’t make that kind of money to afford whatever King Arms is offering us.”
Karen Antle, who said she’s lived in the affordable community for about eight years, also voiced concerns about people being both displaced and then priced out.
“Every evening,” Antle said, “I see my neighbors returning home with dusty boots, work belts and Molly Maid buckets. More often than not, they are carrying sleeping children in their arms. These are the citizens who build your roads and stock your grocery shelves and serve you your morning cup of coffee. Very soon, many of them will be homeless. I will likely be homeless as well.”
The current units at the Kings Arms Apartments are naturally occurring affordable housing, partially due to their age. The latest redevelopment plans would drop the affordable rental units available from 65 to 31. (Photo via Phillips Management Group.)
The overwhelming response from the Chapel Hill Town Council members was that Phillips Management Group needs a more concrete plan for housing displaced tenants if redevelopment moves forward – let alone finding permanent housing for those forced to relocate. Jessica Anderson spoke first on the issue, adding that the project also lacks several components the council seeks to match with its Complete Communities framework for housing.
“There are ways to redevelop and continue to include people in the community,” she said, “and these are folks that we keep saying are important in this community, that they keep our community running, and that we want them to feel welcome. I think the way that we ensure that they feel welcome is that we make sure they still have a home here.”
“Based on what we say about what a complete community is,” Anderson continued, “this project just does not meet that standard yet. And it’s not the town or county’s job to provide those resources for you, as the developer. You need to figure out how you’re going to make that work.”
Council Members Adam Searing and Karen Stegman each said they believed the applicant ought to have a better diversity of housing types there, adding in townhomes instead of apartments similar to others nearby. Searing, who said he lived in the Kings Arms community with his mother when he was younger, also suggested the applicant seek partnership with local housing nonprofits to hear advice and potentially team up to help residents.
Others who spoke during the public comment period were residents of Hamlin Park, a community that neighbors Kings Arms Apartments to the west. Those who addressed the council shared concerns about height and density of the buildings on the north side of Ephesus Church Road, saying they feared being “boxed in” by different apartment communities. Some residents also voiced how stormwater already flows from the Kings Arms area into Hamlin Park, saying they’re worried it could get worse with the current plans listed by the applicant.
Council Member Camille Berry thanked the Hamlin Park residents for sharing their thoughts and comments, saying it’s an important component of the project that Reserve at Blue Hill developers did not seem to properly address.
“Kings Arms did not create [those issues],” said Berry, “but the redevelopment of that – along with the redevelopment that has taken place – is going to exacerbate it. So, I would love to see how there is complimentary development [to the rest of the area.]”
Berry said that before her election to town council, she was living in an area that was approved for redevelopment and faced potential relocation. While she said she always is looking for ways to increase and approve housing options for community members, she said it shouldn’t come at the cost of displacing people in existing homes.
“Even though the newer apartments aren’t yet fully occupied, they will be,” concluded Berry. “Housing is so needed – as is affordable housing, and I would like to see that addressed [with this project].”
Since Wednesday served as a concept plan review, no votes were taken by the town council on the project. Phillips Management Group will be required to submit a conditional zoning request and have it again come before council if it decides to submit redevelopment plans again.
To watch the full Chapel Hill Town Council meeting from Wednesday, September 7, click here.
Featured photo via Phillips Management Group.
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