The Chapel Hill Town Council voted to approve a conditional rezoning application for the property at 1200 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, paving the way for construction of a self-storage unit while protecting an existing mobile home park.
The motion to approve the rezoning passed 5-3, with council members Jessica Anderson, Hongbin Gu and Amy Ryan dissenting. The decision means Stackhouse Properties, which owns the 13.9-acre site, can now move forward to construct a new gas station, convenience store and a 100,000 square foot self-storage facility. In previous negotiations, the property owner indicated it planned to close the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park on the site to instead construction apartment buildings, which would qualify under the current residential zoning.
In the project’s second consideration of the proposal, since an initial 5-3 vote from town council in February did not reach a two-thirds majority of the council, the developer made several concessions to the town government. A project presenter with Coulter Jewell Thames said Stackhouse Properties were willing to make the self-storage unit 10,000 square feet smaller and adopt rent protections for the residents.
While the council members who approved the rezoning request said they did so to protect the mobile home park residents, all of the council members voiced displeasure at the negotiating position created by the developers. Several voiced concern about the actions setting an example for future “predatory developers.” in addition to concern over how self-storage units fail to achieve goals set into the town’s land-use plan.
Anderson said in her mind, the council had simply “not done our job” by failing to having a plan in place to prevent what Ryan described as a “lose-lose” scenario. She said she hopes the town government can better partner with community partners to develop ways to protect such residents in the future.
“This is not a long-term affordable housing solution,” Anderson said. “We need to do what we always talk about, which is to work with the county and other towns to create mobile home park displacement strategy.”
Land owners for the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park threatened to close it if the Chapel Hill Town Council did not approve a conditional rezoning. The council approved the request 5-3, choosing to maintain the naturally-occurring affordable housing community. (Photo via the Daily Tar Heel.)
Gu submitted a petition at the beginning of the meeting requested the town adopt the use of restricted residential zoning to protect manufactured home residents from predatory landlords or developers. While the council did not ultimately accept her petition based on comments indicating such strategies would not provide long-term protection to mobile home residents, Gu said she hopes Chapel Hill can still take steps to create such strategies.
“I think we owe it to our community to explore this,” she said. “It’s not like we want to phase them in and out at certain times. They deserve our time and staff time to at least look in that.”
Council member Michael Parker, who voted to approve the rezoning, also shared his disappointment for the project. He said one of the few positive takeaways for him from the process was learning how much the mobile home community means to its residents.
“One of the core values we have in Chapel Hill is perseveration of our neighborhoods and community,” said Parker. “These mobile home park are neighborhoods and we owe them the same level of protection as any other under a threat to make them leave their homes. While none of us feel good about the negotiation position we’ve been placed in, at the end of the day what has compelled me is that this — and all our mobile home parks — are neighborhoods with strong sense of community and strong personal connections.”
Stackhouse Properties purchase the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park’s plot of land in 2019. With this approval for construction of the gas station, store and storage facilities, the property owner said the profits are expected to protect tenants’ from major rent increases for the next 15 years.
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