Developments spur debate around Chapel Hill

A handful of major developments made progress in Chapel Hill this year, contributing the growing residential and commercial space in the town.

LUX Apartments

With move-in delays, hotel stays and terminated leases, LUX residents had a bumpy start to their first semester.

LUX at Central Park, an apartment complex on a 9.13-acre site along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, did not finish construction in time for students to move in on Aug. 17. The complex said bad weather and problems with permits and inspections caused the delays.

Some residents had their leases terminated outright, while others stayed in hotels and campus residence halls for the first few weeks of the school year.

LUX residents received mixed emails from LUX, some saying that their units would be move-in ready by Sept. 5 while others said they couldn’t move in by the date.

Students who took the on-campus housing offer received $400 Visa gift cards each week to pay for expenses and free moving services.

Leaseholders were also given the option to terminate their leases at no cost.

On Sept. 5, 19 days after the original move-in date, 160 residents were finally able to move-in.

The Graduate

The Graduate, Chapel Hill’s graduate student-oriented housing project, will be located downtown at 105 Kenan St., next to the Franklin Hotel.

A special use permit for the seven-story complex was approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council in October.

The project’s developers, Wintergreen Hospitality, which also owns the Franklin Hotel, say it satisfies a previously unmet need for housing for UNC graduate students.

Village Plaza

Village Plaza, a proposed mixed-use apartment complex on South Elliott Road, is the first development planned under the town’s Ephesus-Fordham Form-Based Code.

The development would include new streets and sidewalks, bike lanes, shared lane bicycle marking and 168 bike parking spaces.

It has sparked heated debate among residents, who have expressed concern that the plan doesn’t include sufficient affordable housing provisions and that the building does not fit the character of the East Franklin Street area.

The Edge

A mixed-use development proposed for Eubanks Road, called The Edge, would include more than 900,000 square feet of residential, retail and office space in at least 23 buildings.

Developer Northwood Ravin has asked the town to make multi-million dollar road improvements to the area.

The town started a public hearing on the property in mid-November and will continue it today.

Rosemary Hotel

Chapel Hill’s hotel market could grow with the development of the Rosemary Street Hotel, which would be located at 210 W. Rosemary St.

The hotel would be a Marriott AC Hotel, a new urban hotel design developed in Spain.

The proposed four-story hotel would include more than 115 rooms, a swimming pool, outdoor eating area, a library, small media salons, a meeting room and more than 100 underground parking spaces.

Though the hotel will be the second non-residential facility in the Northside Neighborhood Conservation District, developers are working to include residents in the design and development process.

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