The Chapel Hill Town Council approved applications for re-zoning and a special use permit for Shortbread Lofts — bringing the complex, which promises downtown housing, closer to reality.
The Monday night approval of the mixed-use site comes after Charterwood, a similar mixed-use site, had its permits rejected earlier in February.
Shortbread Lofts is a proposed mixed-use, 7-story apartment complex that will be built at 333 W. Rosemary St.
About 85 apartments and 121 parking spaces are planned, as well as roughly 6,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
The complex will also have a recreation area on the roof for residents that will include an outdoor track and community gardens.
Phil Post, project engineer for Shortbread Lofts, said they hope to begin construction in June.
Many residents spoke at the meeting in support of the project.
“I’m very pleased,” said Hulene Hill, a Chapel Hill resident. “I think we need more density for people to live downtown in.”
Jim Norton, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said the project would help in a number of ways, including providing downtown housing for UNC students.
“It relieves some of the pressure to convert single-family housing in the Northside community,” he said.
But others expressed skepticism that the project would attract students away from cheaper housing like that in Northside and Pine Knolls.
