Ephesus-Fordham
At its meeting last night, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to approve three developments: the Graduate, an apartment complex targeted to graduate students to be located behind the Franklin Hotel between Mallette and Kenan Streets; the Courtyards of Homestead, an age-restricted, single-family home development to be built off of Homestead Road; and New Life Fellowship, a church to be built between Sage and Weaver Dairy Roads.
Rendering of the proposed Village Plaza Apartments
Yesterday, the Town of Chapel Hill received its first application for a development under the new form-based code rules it approved for the Ephesus-Fordham area earlier this year.
The proposal, called the Village Plaza Apartments, is a mixed-use development proposal for 266 apartments and 15,600 square feet of retail space. The development will be located on South Elliot Road between Whole Foods and the ABC Store in what is known to some as the old theater site. The application was submitted by Scott Murray Land Planning, Inc.
In November 2013, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 7-1 to sell 8.5 acres of town-owned land on Legion Road to Durham-based affordable housing developer, DHIC, Inc, for $100 (the property was valued at $2 million) for the development of 170 units of affordable housing. One of the steps in that development was the need for DHIC to apply for tax credits from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency to assist with funding for the development.
On Monday, DHIC president Greg Warren announced that, because a document was missing from the application, the application had been eliminated from consideration. Because of the incomplete application, DHIC must wait until 2015 to apply for the opportunity again, delaying the completion of an important affordable housing project as we continue to face a housing crisis.
Friends and allies for affordable housing in Chapel Hill---
Unless you watched the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting on Ephesus-Fordham last Monday from start to finish, there’s a good chance you haven’t heard the most bizarre thing said at that meeting.
That comment came from Councilmember Ed Harrison during the discussion on whether or not to apply the freshly-approved form-based code elements of the Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO) to the areas of the Ephesus-Fordham district.
As a recap, you may recall that the Council approved the form-based code addition to the LUMO by an 8-1 vote (Matt Czajkowski voted no), but only approved applying those LUMO additions to Ephesus-Fordham by a 6-3 vote (Ed Harrison and Jim Ward joined Czajkowski in voting no here).
Last Monday, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the Ephesus-Fordham renewal plan. Depending on what news sources and opinion columnists you read, you might have some understanding of what this plan actually is and does, or you might not. Since there has been so much spin around the plan, here's our guide to what the Ephesus-Fordham plan includes - and what the Council passed last Monday.
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