The plan brings a six-story building with 265 apartments, ground-floor retail and a parking deck to the vacant lot that formerly housed the Plaza Theater.
Wednesday was the deadline for town officials to sign off on the first project planned using the new form-based code, but developers asked for a delay.
Chapel Hill is going ahead with the first major project under new zoning rules in the Ephesus-Fordham district, but not everyone is pleased with the process.