Chapel Hill council rejects MLK Blvd. project with affordable apartments. Here’s why.

A developer took a gamble Wednesday night and lost his bid to build a seven-story apartment building with 14 affordable units on one of Chapel Hill’s busiest transit corridors.

With only Mayor Pam Hemminger and seven council members present — Council member Tai Huynh was absent — the 112-unit Aspen Chapel Hill apartment building at 701 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. failed on a 4-4 vote.

State law recently changed to allow only one vote for rezoning projects, which means those that end in a tie vote are denied. The decision means the developer will have to wait at least a year before submitting another zoning application for the same property.

Hemminger, who cast the final “no” vote, agreed that the project fit the town’s future land-use plans for the site, which is near the Grove Park and Union Chapel Hill student apartments, backs up to student duplexes and is less than a mile from UNC’s campus. It is also on several bus routes, including the future North-South bus-rapid transit line.

But she struggled with this decision, Hemminger said, because the council had repeatedly asked developer Aspen Heights Partners to build housing that could serve workers, not students, and because it would require significant changes to the site’s steep slopes.

The town is trying to get more information from UNC about its enrollment plans and how to jointly serve student renters, she said.

“We need workers and we need them to be able to walk to downtown,” Hemminger said. “I understand this site has constraints; I think you’ve offered a lot of benefits. I’m just really having a hard time with because I see the need too for some more student housing at some point, but I don’t think it falls solely on the town to provide it.”

Council members Adam Searing, Amy Ryan and Jessica Anderson also voted against the project.

Ryan, who stated her opposition to student housing early in the process, said Wednesday the project also does not fit the town’s new Complete Community vision for increasing its workforce housing stock.

It’s also doubtful that adults will want to live in a student apartment building, she said.

“It’s a standalone suburban building, not an outward-facing community asset. It only addresses one of our housing demographics, not the needs of multiple other residents that we have, like young families, new professionals, retiring seniors,” she said.

Age limit, public support, housing need

Aspen Heights President David Helfrich had agreed before the vote to limit tenants to people at least 21 years old during their first lease term. He also agreed to pay the town $100,000 toward greenways, bike and pedestrian amenities, and to forgo shuttle service to campus to avoid siphoning Chapel Hill Transit bus riders.

The project had support from the town’s Community Design Commission, town staff and neighbors, he said, and could reduce the pressure on older, more affordable housing by attracting students who already live off campus.

“In our professional opinion, non-student, market-rate rents do not support the cost of construction required to achieve density in this location, especially given the challenging (topography), the (resource conservative district) constraints and the parking that would be required for a non-student renter,” Helfrich said.

Hemminger gave him a choice of waiting for Huynh to join the vote at a future meeting, or getting a decision Wednesday. Helfrich chose the latter.

The council cast the deciding vote after one last push from Council member Camille Berry, who pointed out what the project meant for people who need housing.

“We have the opportunity for 14 affordable units at this site. I can’t let that go,” Berry said before the vote. “I know that you are torn, but this is 14 units that are year-round.”

The Orange Report

Calling Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough readers! Check out The Orange Report, a free weekly digest of some of the top stories for and about Orange County published in The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. Get your newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday at 11 a.m. featuring links to stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Orange-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "Chapel Hill Carrboro Chat."