Leaders of a local non-profit focused on affordable housing are regrouping after missing out on a federal tax credit this year that would have helped a project straddling the Chapel Hill – Carrboro line move forward.

CASA received approval from the two municipalities this spring to rezone a now-vacant property in hopes of establishing a 48-unit affordable housing apartment complex on the lot.

CASA officials wrote in companion letters to the local government bodies, including the Orange County Commissioners, that the non-profit remains “absolutely committed to developing permanently affordable housing on the Merritt Mill site.”

The property was put under contract, they wrote, because of the land-banking opportunity it presented, where property is purchased and set aside for a specific purpose – in this case, affordable housing.

“The value we saw in this property then, continues to be true now,” the letter to local government officials said, “a vacant, well-located, transit-accessible site within the downtown core of both Chapel Hill and Carrboro.”

The non-profit leadership wrote that they would continue to work with both towns toward the goal of completing the purchase of the lot in November of this year.

CASA officials are now considering three options to move forward. In order to get the site developed “as quickly and effectively as possible,” officials wrote that their top choice would be to resubmit the application for the same tax credit in the 2019 cycle.

They wrote that there is “some level of luck” in the selection process that can make it unpredictable but added that the application “scored well on all factors within our control.”

A second option would be to “identify some other funding mechanism,” including other federal housing options. Finally, the project could be developed in phases, which officials wrote was the original plan. But time and overall costs of having to go through regulatory procedures to accommodate that plan make it less desirable.

Emails from both Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger and chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Mark Dorosin in response to the correspondence from CASA both expressed optimism and support for the project to move forward.

Photo via Town of Carrboro

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