Carrboro seeks clarity in development process

Carrboro officials are looking at how to increase the amount of affordable housing in the area and the process they use to get it built.

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen reviewed two proposed developments Tuesday that do not meet the town's suggestion of making 15 percent of housing units affordable.

The Jones property and the Oasis Grove Court developments are the first to come before the aldermen at this stage - a new step in the approval process.

Carrboro Vision 2020, the town's plan for development, stipulates that 15 percent of residential units in each housing development should meet affordability standards.

Households earning below 80 percent of the median county income - $69,800 for a family of four during 2004 - are eligible for affordable housing, according to the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust.

Chapel Hill's minimum requirement is 15 percent. In February, the aldermen approved a process to question developers who do not meet a similar standard in Carrboro.

But the Jones and Oasis Grove proposals already were engaged in the approval process when the new requirement was passed.

Dan Jewell, who represented the Jones property, told the aldermen that his project currently includes 12.5 percent affordable units in the form of town homes.

Meeting 15 percent would mean putting more town homes into the project and losing at least one single-family lot, he said.

Alderman Jacquelyn Gist asked Jewell for ways the approval process could be made more transparent, as his was the first development to come before the board.

"Folks want to know that they're dealing with a level playing field," Jewell said, adding that builders want to know they all are going through the same process.

Robert Dowling, the executive director of OCHLT, echoed Jewell's suggestions.

"All developers should be treated equally," he said.

"I think it would be helpful if developers came to us early in the process to understand what affordable housing means.

"To me, it's more important to get the units, get them priced right and keep them affordable than to make them single-family homes."

Gist and Alderman Joal Broun said they are concerned developers are not always aware of the approval steps they must get through.

"For longer than I can remember, I've been saying that the process we put people through adds to the cost of housing," Gist said. "We need to be careful that the hoops are very evident."

 

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