The Town of Chapel Hill has approved Vilage Plaza Apartments, the first development proposed under the new form-based code implemented in the Ephesus-Fordham District.
Village Plaza Apartments will be constructed on the vacant site located between the Whole Foods shopping center and the ABC Store on South Elliot Rd. The development will bring 265 apartments, ground-floor retail space, a parking deck, greenway improvements, and roadway improvements. Rent for a 1-bedroom apartment will be approximately $1,150/month while a 2-bedroom apartment will rent for about $1,600/month.
Full information about the approval and the development is available on the Town's website here.
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As a note, the rents for these small apartments are significantly higher than I pay for my small house. I've asked some of the graduate students in my classes if they can afford those levels of rent and they just laugh before spitting out "no."
Yes Travis, that is the idea you have promoted. It's a standard economic supply and demand theory. But look around you--it's not working in practice. The more high end units that are added, the higher the median income of the community goes. Doesn't matter whether it's single family housing or apartments--the theory is not working in practice here in southern Orange County.
Travis You have left out some important information. The Code approved by the Council allows 90 foot buildings without energy efficiency and affordable housing standards and no amenties for Chapel Hill. The project will be mostly residential, so it won't help our tax base, the stated reason for upzoning the 200 acre zone. The roads improvements outside the project will be paid for by the taxpayers, not the developer. The greenway already exists and thru bad planning the building's back road encroaches on this now attractive greenway and it will need to be moved further down the hill toward Booker Creek. The big lost opportunity was not creating a project that would have faced the creek and made a Weaver Street like space for community members.
The Town Council approved the zone with 3 dissenting council members: Matt Cz, Jim Ward, and Ed Harrison. Despite hundreds of letters and constructive advice from the public, no changes were made from the initial ideas presented by the Town’s Economic Development Director. As you point out this is the first project under the new code. It would appear to be a bad deal for the town economically and environmentally. We can all stay tuned as the orange tape goes up.