Viewpoints: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

A perspective from Jennifer Player

For more than 20 years, Habitat for Humanity of Orange County has worked towards building a development off Sunrise Road in Chapel Hill. You are invited to join us on May 20 to celebrate as we set a new precedent for mixed-income living with the successful launch of Weavers Grove.

Habitat purchased the first piece of property in 2003. The 2008 financial crash brought our plans to a screeching halt. While unknowable at  the time, this roadblock would ultimately provide an opportunity to dream bigger and bolder. From the beginning, Habitat’s plans were immediately met with sustained resistance from some residents of a neighboring subdivision. Despite petitions and coalitions, fear-mongering and lawsuits, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved the plan for Weavers Grove in June of 2020.

Change is hard. We have tried to honor this reality throughout the development process and in every interaction with neighboring communities. Many nearby residents have lived for decades next to a 32-acre forest in what used to be a fairly rural part of Chapel Hill; a neighborhood that was constructed before East Chapel Hill High School or improvements to Weaver Dairy Road. Much of that forest has now been necessarily cut down to make room for more than 200 sorely-needed homes at Weavers Grove, including 3 and 4 story condo buildings. The sound of construction is pervasive. That’s a lot of change.

But the story doesn’t end there.

As we prepare to begin building the first of these homes in the coming months, we received an email from residents of that same neighborhood. They want to be the first volunteers on the construction site at Weavers Grove. Progress. Hope.

As a child, I loved Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I would sit in front of our TV, singing along as Mr. Rogers put on his shoes and cardigan sweater. I soaked up the ideals that he espoused before I knew how important they were. Resolving conflict, appreciating differences, building self-confidence, being a good listener, treating everyone with respect and understanding. It is the kind of world we all want to live in, one that embodies our vision for Weavers Grove. Alongside our market rate partners, White Oak Properties and Garman Homes, we are embracing and promoting the diversity that will make this development so vibrant. We are creating a new way to live together as neighbors, including with those in nearby communities.

I’d like you to meet a few of the homeowners who will purchase the first Habitat homes in Weavers Grove. Any of us would be lucky to call them neighbors.

The first approved homebuyer at Weavers Grove is Sparkle, a name that perfectly embodies this mom’s energy. Sparkle works at Triangle Corporate Coach and is a passionate advocate for her son who has cerebral palsy and also is deaf. Her future neighbor, Ana*, is a preschool teacher at Chapel Hill Community Preschool and a mom to two boys. Judy, also a mom of two boys, cares for our senior population as a Certified Nursing Assistant at The Cedars where she has worked for 12 years. You may run into Wei doing your shopping at Whole Foods. She will be purchasing a home with her husband, Paw, and their three sons. You might meet another Weavers Grove homebuyer, Donna, as you shop at Target or when picking your kids up at the Learning Academy. Donna works two jobs to afford her current rent in Chapel Hill and now, like the others, will have a consistent, affordable mortgage and the opportunity to build equity through homeownership.

As Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood taught us, the best way to be a good neighbor is to be in relationship together. We know that connections will develop between the residents of Weavers Grove as families play together on the playground, enjoy a potluck under the pavilion, enjoy cool nights by the fire pit, or chat while sipping on a hot cup of coffee at the community center.

Even before the first family moves in, Weavers Grove provides an opportunity to bring the broader community together for a common purpose. Enter the Habitat construction site. Nothing creates a sense of community quite like building a Habitat home. It takes hold among volunteers and future homeowners who, arriving in the morning as strangers, leave the site connected to the people they laughed, sweated, and worked alongside. It’s present at every dedication ceremony, where family members and neighbors rally around new homeowners to envelop them in love and support on their new journey. Behind every story of transformation, of redemption, of salvation, we find a community in the wings.

Over nearly 40 years, we have seen time and time again the powerful benefits that arise when people from all walks of life work together to lift up one another. If we hope to achieve our vision of an Orange County where absolutely no one lacks a safe and decent place to live, it will take bringing more people into the fold, strengthening our community, building a movement. By working in community, we are not only building homes – we’re building a better and more just world for us all.

So I just have one question for you, on behalf of the future 102 homeowners in Weavers Grove. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor? See you on the construction site.

*some names have been changed

(featured image via Weaver’s Grove)

“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.