Council extends Habitat loans for extra month

The Chapel Hill Town Council voted to extend its loan to Habitat for Humanity on Monday night — at least until the council’s March 7 business meeting.

A $50,000 loan from the town for a Habitat project off Sunrise Road was scheduled to be paid back by Feb. 28, but the organization asked the council to extend the due date and consider converting the loan into deferred second mortgages for the homeowners who will live at the site.

Loryn Barnes, principal community development planner for Chapel Hill’s planning department, said the money would be paid back to the town if a homeowner chooses to sell his house.

But members of the Sunrise Coalition, a group of nearby residents that formed in 2003 to oppose the project, asked the council to delay voting on the loan extension until the Feb. 28 meeting.

Doug Schworer, president of the coalition, stated in an e-mail petition to the council that the group wants an extension because members didn’t have adequate time to review Town Manager Cal Horton’s recommendation on the loan.

“We really are at a disadvantage with the short notice,” said Steve Henry Herman, the sole member of the coalition to attend Monday’s meeting. “We want to facilitate a timely outcome of the project.”

Council members delayed the decision until March 7 to give both sides time to prepare.

Habitat’s proposal for the Sunrise subdivision is to build 50 units on a 17-acre property near Ginger Road, south of Interstate 40.

Fourteen of those homes would be for single families — the rest would be duplexes and triplexes.

Strained relations have existed between Habitat and the coalition since 2003, when the loan was first granted to Habitat from the town’s Housing Loan Trust Fund.

Coalition members said Habitat is planning to build too many houses on too few acres. The coalition wants only about half the proposed number on the property.

Members also say the housing plan is too dense and that noise levels will rise significantly, but Habitat said it is doing all it can to appease the area residents.

Susan Levy, executive director of Habitat of Orange County, said Habitat’s proposal fits well within the town’s zoning law, which says that there can be no more than four units per acre.

She added that Habitat is preparing to submit a development application to the town, having already hired a consultant to study the amount of noise coming from I-40.

“We have listened,” she said. “We feel very strongly that we have listened, that we have responded.”

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said he thinks Habitat has been taking steps to meet some of the coalition’s demands.

Herman said the coalition is glad that the council decided to delay its vote on the issue.

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