New Housing and Retail Space Planned for Rosemary Street

And all that infrastructure will be housed in one building.

The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously voted for downtown mixed-use space at its Monday meeting, clearing the way for a four-story structure on the northwest corner of Rosemary Street and Mitchell Lane.

"This is a move in a different direction for Chapel Hill," said Mayor Kevin Foy. "But it's a direction we wanted to take."

The development's residential units will house two- and three-bedroom units, according to site developer Tom Tucker.

Tucker said small businesses, to be housed on the building's lower level, will have an opportunity to locate downtown without paying pricey Franklin Street rents.

"If you look at Rosemary Street (now), there really aren't many opportunities for retail," Tucker said.

But before council members approved the plan, they discussed parking issues. The plan placed 45 parking spots on-site and a 7,800-foot off-site lot west of the development at 109 Merritt Mill Road.

Some council members were concerned that overflow parkers could crowd other Northside residents. The council discussed reducing the development's residential units from 42 to 39 to reduce car counts but decided against it.

"I don't like cutting back on three places to live downtown because of parking," said council member Dorothy Verkerk.

Instead, the council will deal with residents' parking concerns as the need arises. Town Manager Cal Horton said the town could issue parking permits to neighbors on a house-by-house basis, thereby disallowing intruding parkers.

But Northside residents could still face parking problems.

"We can have the rules," said council member Jim Ward. "But without the enforcement, they're meaningless."

Six of the 42 residential units will be offered at affordable housing prices.

Tucker said construction will begin in the spring and will last about one year.

Before the vote, council members viewed a virtual image of the completed project from both sides of Rosemary Street. The computer program popped the development right into a photograph of the neighborhood.

"You could see how much open space is available on Rosemary Street on up toward Pantana Bob's," said Foy. "All of that area in between is ripe for development."

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