Members of the Orange County Affordable Housing Advisory Board embarked on a field trip around the county Saturday morning to look at the various affordable housing projects in the area.
Tara Fikes, director of the Orange County Department of Housing and Community Development, led the bus tour. "This is the real Orange County," she said, as some members seemed unfamiliar with sites outside the heart of Chapel Hill.
The tour showed housing projects that have been around for years and new projects expected to be developed in the near future.
The board got a chance to see the Sunrise Road site Habitat for Humanity of Orange County plans to develop. Concept plans for the project will be presented at tonight's Chapel Hill Town Council meeting.
The project is expected to face opposition because of the high costs that might be needed to develop it and because it is located near Interstate 40, which could cause noise concerns among residents.
This was the first year the board used the tour to familiarize itself with affordable housing sites in the county. "If you are going to make recommendations (about affordable housing) we need to know what we are talking about," said board member Barbara Mull.
The board saw 18 affordable housing sites and made scheduled stops. Other sites were seen while board members drove by.
Members visited a Habitat site at Richmond Hills off U.S. 70 near Mebane, where two houses were under construction. Tyler Momsen-Hudson, construction manager for Habitat, showed the board members examples of how his organization builds affordable homes for the area.
Money from the county, along with donations, helps make the homes affordable for families, he said.
