Low-income housing in Chapel Hill — long an important issue for the Town Council — got a boost Monday night when the council approved an expedited review for a proposal to add low-income housing to the Dobbins Hill complex.
The council also decided to postpone until February a discussion of a related request to expedite a special-use permit for Wilson Assemblage, a mixed-use development that Charlotte firm Crosland Inc. has proposed on an adjacent property.
The new low-income housing in Dobbins Hill was Crosland’s response to criticism from council members at its Nov. 15 meeting.
Members criticized the revised plan Crosland presented at that meeting because the revisions cut out the low-income housing component of the project.
Principal Jack Smyre of The Design Response Inc., a firm retained by Crosland to help obtain the required special-use permits, spoke Monday about the new plan before the council voted.
“We’ve made an aggressive response, we think, in response to what we heard at the Nov. 15 meeting,” Smyre said.
The revised plan for the development, to be built northeast of the intersection of U.S. 15-501 and Erwin Road, retained a mixture of residential, office and retail space.
Smyre also pointed out that the Dobbins Hill housing will be for residents making 50 percent of the town’s median income.
Chapel Hill considers dwellings for those making less than 80 percent of the town’s median income to be low-income housing and defines housing for those making below 50 percent of the median income as very low-income housing.
