Council might approve plans

A proposed development that would create new affordable housing garnered a warm reception at Monday’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting and could help a connected project move closer toward approval.

Dobbins Hill Phase II would create 32 new affordable housing units and 54 new parking spaces in the Dobbins Hill development, located northeast of the intersection of U.S. 15-501 and Erwin Road.

Robert Dowling, executive director for the Orange Community Housing & Land Trust, praised the development.

“Tax-credit rental housing is vital to the community,” he said. “Tax credits are not easy to get.

“The standards go up every year, but these new buildings will be more likely to get approved.”

Dowling also said that because of the way federal tax laws work, the land trust will be able to buy all the units in 15 years for about $700,000 compared with the $3.2 million it cost to build them. “That is a definite bargain.”

While the proposal was generally well-received, some council members expressed concern with the project’s potential impact on area traffic and pedestrian safety.

Council member Dorothy Verkerk said she is worried about people who walk along the adjacent Sage Road.

“You’ve done such a good job in creating easy access to Sage Road,” she said. “What I’m worried about is that there’s no way for pedestrians to cross.”

But Principal Jack Smyre of The Design Response Inc., a firm retained by the developers to obtain the project’s approval, said the project’s special-use permit would require the company to build pedestrian walking signals to alleviate such concerns.

Other council members worried that with the additional access to Sage Road, some commuters might use the new access as a cut-through during rush hour, creating traffic in surrounding neighborhoods.

But Smyre said he did not believe that traffic would be a problem because a planned street will run parallel to the access.

“We cannot imagine who would try to cut through there,” he said. “It’s not a path you would try to follow.”

Town Manager Cal Horton said Dobbins Hill’s approval is critical to the approval of Wilson Assemblage — a development that would include 149 dwelling units, 48,000 square feet of office/retail space and 402 parking spaces.

“It is joined at the hip with Wilson Assemblage because of the restrictions imposed by council,” Horton said.

Town Planning Director Roger Waldon added that the projects share many common issues. “This would be a coordinated development.”

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