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Council opens talks on major development south of town

Posted on May 20, 2010May 20, 2010 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Chapel Hill — The Chapel Hill Town Council and developer Roger Perry of East West Partners opened discussions Monday night on how best to approach plans for a major retail, office and residential development on U.S. 15-501 directly across from Southern Village.

Perry, developer of Meadowmont and, most recently, East 54, is working with Capkov Ventures on a proposal for about 120 acres at the southern entrance to Chapel Hill.

The Obey Creek project would put high-rise office and condo buildings and about 300,000 square feet in commercial space on roughly 40 acres along the highway. Much of the land is on steep terrain, which has scuttled projects in the past, including a proposal to build a high school on the property. Preliminary plans for the project include an offer to dedicate 80 acres along Wilson Creek for a town park or natural area.

Perry told council members that given the size and scope of the project, a development agreement, rather than a rezoning and special-use permit process, might be the best approach. The council recently finished a development agreement with the university on Carolina North.

Perry said he wanted to get the ideas before the council to start a discussion on how big the town should grow and in what manner. He reminded the council that the Triangle is expected to add another million residents over the next decade and that Chapel Hill would share in that growth.

“The people are coming,” he said. “Where do you put them?”

Several council members said they would prefer to use a development agreement, which establishes phasing and benchmarks over a long timeframe, because it allows the town and developer more flexibility to negotiate.
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and council member Ed Harrison said they would like to see the council consider the development-agreement approach to allow for a better back-and-forth on the project.

While council members were concerned about the idea of several multi-story buildings along the highway, the prospect of major commercial space on the town’s main southern corridor was received positively.

Perry said the commercial space being contemplated is roughly equivalent to the square footage of University Mall and would require a major anchor tenant, such as Target or Belks, to work.
Kleinschmidt said that too many retail dollars and the sales-tax revenues that go with them are flowing across the border into Chatham County.

“This may be the opportunity to plug some of those retail leaks,” he said.

Residents near the site – both adjacent to it and from across the street in Southern Village – said they were worried about how the massive proposal would affect the area.

“I thought Southern Village was the last big thing on this side of town,” resident John James said.

In other action Monday night, the council got its first look at a concept plan for The Cottages of Chapel Hill on Homestead Road. The plan, designed by the Capstone Development Corporation, calls for 137 two- and three-story buildings with 330 dwelling units and 1,120 bedrooms on the 33-acre site.

Residents of the nearby Homestead Village development said while they knew the parcel would one day be developed, they were stunned by the size of the development and the fact that it was aimed mainly at students even though the site is three miles from campus.

“The thought of having 1,100 unsupervised students right next to my house does not strike me as a good idea,” resident Robin Willis told the council.

Some council members said the plan doesn’t seem like a good fit for the area, both in its design and because it is aimed mainly at undergraduates.

Council member Penny Rich said the concept “looks like a massive parking lot.”

Council member Sally Greene said the project looked far too generic and did not seem to be justified by a dearth of undergraduate housing.

“It’s not my sense that the university is growing that fast,” she said, adding that the nearby Carolina North project is not aimed at undergraduates. She said she would have a hard time supporting the project.

1 thought on “Council opens talks on major development south of town”

  1. Spence Foscue says:
    May 25, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    A big concern is where all the cars go to and from another large, dense development on the south side of Chapel Hill. Fordham Blvd is already congested and has traffic backups at times of peak travel. How will people get to all those new tax producing commercial spaces when the roads are overwhelmed? Or, back and forth to work? If mass transit options were being adequately used Fordham Blvd. would not already be a parking lot at times.

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