By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – A new plan is in the works for a seven-story student-housing development at 602 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., the current site of Central Park Apartments.
The Chapel Hill Town Council heard preliminary plans for the project during a concept plan review Monday night. Trinitas Multi-Family Development, a company based in Lafayette, Ind., that specializes in student-housing development, proposes about 428,000 square feet of floor area in four seven-story buildings on 9.1 acres. The proposal includes 319 two- to four-bedroom apartments, 200 parking spaces and amenities including a pool and fitness center.
If the project is approved, the three Central Park Apartments buildings, formerly known as Northampton Terrace Apartments, built in the 1960s, would be torn down.
A number of neighbors of the site expressed concern about the proposed height of the project, the lack of parking provided and the number of students that the project would house.
“I have a sense that what’s going to happen is going to affect rather negatively the way we live … by the appearance suddenly of four or five hundred more students,†said Arthur Finn, who lives on the corner of North and Hillsborough streets. “Is it right for anyone to erect another off-campus dormitory?â€
Council members urged the developers to be sensitive to the historic district neighboring the site on Hillsborough Street.
“It just seems like an awful lot of mass, and I don’t like the 90-feet heights,†council member Gene Pease said. “I like the idea of the project, and we need more student housing close to campus, but I think this is just too much.â€
Council member Lee Storrow said he felt the project could fit well into the surrounding area.
“Those buildings don’t strike me as inconsistent with the things around them,†he said.
Several council members also said they were concerned about the amount of parking proposed.
Travis Vencel, a developer with Trinitas, said his company has used the limited-parking model in similar developments in other college towns. Residents would be required to either lease a parking spot at the development, show proof of a lease for a parking spot elsewhere or sign an agreement that they would not bring a car into Orange County, facing possible eviction for violating that agreement.