UPDATE: On June 17, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved a resolution allowing the town manager to execute a lease at 7300 Millhouse Road as part of its consent agenda.
The Chapel Hill Police Department has long sought a permanent home beyond their current spot at 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The facility is in poor condition and is constructed on top of an area known to have coal ash in the soil. While the town has explored whether to redevelop on the site or to find a long-term home elsewhere, the law enforcement’s headquarters knew they would have to move.
Now, after an initial option discussed in 2022 fell through, the local government may have found that new spot.
The Chapel Hill Town Council and local government staff opened a public hearing on Wednesday to get feedback on leasing space at 7300 Millhouse Road for the police department. The discussions mark a shift in plans for the town. In September 2023, the police department and town staff earned permission from council members to target the Parkline building at 1830 Fordham Boulevard, which is owned by the State Employees’ Credit Union and used to be the Blue Cross Blue Shield building.
Alex Carrasquillo, the public information officer for Chapel Hill Police, confirmed to Chapelboro discussions for leasing at the Parkline building broke down and a lease agreement was never reached. He cited issues with the property that “couldn’t meet the needs of a police department,” which include ample parking for department vehicles, space for dozens of department employees, and areas to hold suspects before they are taken to the Orange County Detention Center.
Instead, the town and police department turned to look in an area where many other Chapel Hill departments have their headquarters. The local government’s public works operations and transit headquarters are in buildings along Millhouse Road, which is off Eubanks Road in northern Chapel Hill and is part of town zoned to promote industrial business. It was that zoning that led to the 7300 Millhouse Road space, which is part of the North Chapel Business Center. Opened in 2023, the industrial park consists of two buildings available to multiple tenants and Chapel Hill Police are negotiating for space in the building closest to the road.
An aerial view of the North Chapel Business Center located off Millhouse Road in Chapel Hill. (Photo via Merritt Properties.)
Carrasquillo said lease negotiations with the property owners, Merritt Properties, are still ongoing — including how much retrofitting or redevelopment may be necessary to accommodate the police department within the 58,000 square-foot space being targeted. The costs for the project, however, have been discussed with the town council as the local government considers a bond referendum this fall and recently passed its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The town council heard from Chapel Hill Police Chief Celisa Lehew and Deputy Town Manager Mary Jane Nirdlinger about the lease negotiations on Wednesday. The current proposal is for the local government to sign a 15-year lease for the space at $1.3 million as the base (year one) rent. Lehew said her department has been patient as the town has cycled through different options for where to have police and the Emergency Operations Center — but she added the group has clearly outgrown its current space and needs better working conditions.
“This space at Millhouse is a safe, sustainable, functional, accessible and welcoming location for our guardians and community members,” said Lehew. “The location at Millhouse will not affect our response and we’re in communication with [Chapel Hill] Transit to make sure there’s an accessible [entry] spot. This is a place that the Guardians [of the Hill] can call home.”
Plans for a new Municipal Services Center where the current police station stands have been discussed for years, but the presence of coal ash on the site ground those efforts to a halt. and the long-term mitigation expected through North Carolina’s Brownfields program points to an extended timeline. The Chapel Hill Town Council voted as recently as March 2023 to create a concept plan for what that facility would look like — a key step in providing details to the state Department of Environmental Quality for its assessment and a change from its earlier exploration into the possibility of housing on the site. Since then, the local government has been working to develop an agreement for the Brownfields program, according to a release from the town in January 2024. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also is expected to conduct a preliminary assessment of the risks at the site based on a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity.
During the meeting on Wednesday, Nirdlinger said a draft Brownfields agreement from the DEQ about 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is “imminent.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect actions and information discussed in the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting from Wednesday, June 12.
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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