Hotel development in Southern Village to impact traffic

Chapel Hill residents raised concerns Tuesday night about a proposed hotel development in Southern Village.

If approved, the project would include two buildings — the 115- to 125-room hotel and either a 68-unit apartment complex or a 48,000-square foot office building.

At the public information meeting, some residents discussed the proposed development’s impact on traffic flow and businesses.

Chapel Hill resident Gary Kahn said he was worried about patrons of the new development taking parking spaces from Southern Village businesses. He also said the increased traffic flow from the development could also be a problem.

But Rosemary Waldorf, project manager for the developer, Bryan Properties, said each building will have parking beneath it — and the development will be beneficial to Southern Village businesses.

“If you walked into the businesses and said, ‘Would you like more customers?’ I think they’d say yes,” she said.

She said most of the traffic impact will be on U.S. 15-501, not Southern Village.

Chapel Hill resident Paul Rowe said he was concerned about the development using Southern Village’s branding without contributing to maintenance of the area.

“Homeowners and apartments pay for the upkeep of Southern Village,” he said. “They’re going to come in, trade on the name and not pay for any of the amenities.”

Waldorf said upkeep of Southern Village is the town’s concern, not the developer’s.

She said Bryan Properties built all of the current Southern Village buildings, and still owns several of them. She added that the company also owns the Southern Village logo, which it designed in the 1990s.

Bryan Properties is asking the town to modify special use permits to allow for greater flexibility of use.

Judy Johnson, Chapel Hill’s senior planner, said the current Southern Village special use permit includes caps on the amount of retail, office and residential space.

“Back when we were starting mixed-use development, we tied ourselves into little knots,” Johnson said.

Three houses will have to be demolished to make room for the development.

Waldorf said Bryan Properties has an agreement with the owners of the houses that would have to be demolished. If the proposal is approved, the company will buy them from the homeowners.

She said the occupants are all single males.

“We have a very strong interest in having what we put there to look better than what is there now,” Waldorf said.

Some residents questioned the need for another hotel in Chapel Hill while one is being built in neighboring Carrboro.

Waldorf said a company out of Atlanta is working on a market survey to determine the demand for hotels in the area.

The town will take into consideration the comments made at the meeting and make recommendations for changing the application to the developer.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.