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On August 23, the CDC had a marathon 5.5 hour meeting to discuss if some new housing developments are pretty enough to be built. (Side note to taxpayers: The CDC is a volunteer board but town staff support it and sit through their monthly meetings – in 2022 every meeting has been at least 3.5 hours long).
If you are unfamiliar with the CDC, they advise developers at the concept plan stage on how to make their projects more aesthetically pleasing (there is no parallel concept plan review required by the planning commission, housing advisory board, or the transportation and connectivity board, which gives an idea of Chapel Hill’s priorities for development).
The main plot in As the World Burns is that the earth is literally on fire due to climate change and the residents of our fair village are in a race against time to save the planet. They are exploring obvious interventions like building more densely in transit corridors to reduce auto-dependency and to enable people to live close to centers of economic opportunity instead of far-flung, sprawling suburbs.
Additionally, town residents and elected officials have pressed for the development of owner-occupied condos and townhomes. A benefit of such housing is that it more efficiently uses scare land than suburban-style development, which lowers housing costs and enables more families to afford to live in Chapel Hill.
Enter Lock7 Development to save the day with their proposed project, 710 N. Estes Townhomes. The project – on what is now vacant land – would create homeownership opportunities for 95 families within easy walking distance to the MLK transit corridor, Phillips Middle School, and the YMCA. The new multiuse path on Estes will create easy access to the library and grocers and restaurants.
Fourteen units in the project will be reserved for homebuyers making 80 percent of less of the area median income. That’s 14 homes that will be affordable to public school teachers, firefighters, or junior professors at UNC.
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