Officials: Development Pause Will Not Impact Students

The Chapel Hill Town Council passed a virtual moratorium on development Jan. 28, allowing only four projects to proceed according to schedule.

Although students have expressed concern about growing student demand for housing, town officials say the virtual moratorium will not impact the availability of student housing.

Officials chose to accept a resolution calling for the virtual moratorium so the town will have time to revamp its development ordinance before moving forward with new development. The town's tentative deadline for completing work on the ordinance is Sept. 18.

Lee Conner, a UNC law student who has worked on behalf of student renters, said the town has posed a threat to student residents by freezing future development.

"There haven't been enough apartments built in the last 10 years, and the Town Council freezing development the other night is not the best thing for that problem," Conner said.

But Town Manager Cal Horton said students should not be concerned with the council's Jan. 28 resolution.

"I don't think there's any relevant connection between what the town has done and the student housing situation," Horton said, adding that he does not think the resolution will slow development at all because the moratorium is only expected to last about six months.

But town officials say the conflict between residents and students has gotten worse as UNC's enrollment swells and the demand for rental housing exceeds what the surrounding area can supply.

"There are nearly 17,000 students in the marketplace for housing in town," said council member Bill Strom. "And since this is a town with less than 50,000 people, student renters have raised rental rates and property values."

Strom said the student housing demand problem is compounded by the fact that students often compete with town and University employees for low-cost housing.

Many residents are being pushed out of low-cost neighborhoods like Northside and Pine Knolls by students, complicating the town's ability to provide enough affordable housing, Strom said.

Although Strom said he did not think the moratorium would exacerbate the the low-cost housing shortage, he said more low-cost housing is needed to accommodate students and residents.

Town Council member Flicka Bateman said the affordable housing shortage likely will continue because developers would rather build $200,000 houses than $100,000 houses.

"The problem with affordable housing is the need for land," Bateman said. "There is greater demand for housing, but no new affordable housing is being built."

Conner said the problem is that the University continues to grow, but the town is running out of room to expand.

"It seems a lot of people think the gates of the town should have closed behind them."

But Mark Patmore, a local landlord with 26 properties in the Northside neighborhood, defends students' right to move into low-cost neighborhoods, regardless of the impact on residents.

"If you're going to live in a University town, you're going to live with students," Patmore said. "People who can't afford to live here don't need to live close."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.