The Chapel Hill Town Council met on Jan. 29 to discuss a unified affordable housing program, a special use permit for development at the Finley Golf Course and updates regarding the Stormwater Master Plan and the Land Use Management Ordinance.
The discussions of the Stormwater Master Plan and the Land Use Management Ordinance were presented in a work session format and were agenda items delayed from the Council’s cancelled meeting on Jan. 22.
What’s New?
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Emily Holt, Chapel Hill’s affordable housing manager, requested the Council’s approval of the unification of the Town’s affordable housing program.
- The proposal authorizes the Town Manager to approve funding allocations of up to $400,000 annually.
- Staff would have the ability to update the Affordable Housing Funding Allocation Strategy. Holt said this is intended to allow staff to make adjustments to administrative processes, and any funding decisions over the $400,000 threshold would be presented to the Council.
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Tas Lagoo, the principal planner for land use; Kody Trowbridge, a project manager at McAdams; and Rick Steinbacher, the senior associate athletic director at UNC, held a public hearing for a special use permit for development at the Finley Golf Course.
- The Finley Golf Course currently houses one training facility for UNC’s golf team, and UNC wants to build a second facility.
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Sammy Bauer, the community education director in the public works department, shared an update on the implementation of the Stormwater Master Plan.
- A study conducted by the Town that analyzed stormwater management in the Lower Booker Creek subwatershed recommended the development of green infrastructure, grey infrastructure such as curbs and pipes and a network of flood storage projects to improve stormwater management.
- In 2021, the Town developed the Booker Creek Basin Park as a flood storage project designed to mitigate flooding from 25 year storms.
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Barbara Driscoll, a representative from New Hope Bird Alliance, expressed concerns about the environmental impacts of proposed basin projects during the public comment period.
- “This was economically not sound, one,” Driscoll said. “It’s also environmentally not sound because we’re destroying very healthy riparian areas that absorb water, absorb carbon, create biodiversity within our area.”
- Bauer acknowledged the community’s concerns in response to the project, including the clear-cutting of trees in the area, the Town’s lack of consideration of alternative options and poor communication.
- “We really are confident that this approach is one of the best options for really advancing our mission and yielding the greatest public benefit,” Bauer said. “We also know that we are going to balance flood storage needs with environmental protection goals.”
- Lagoo presented an update on the rewriting of the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance’s inclusionary zoning rules.
- The Town’s planning and affordable housing staff recommended increasing the threshold for the applicability of inclusionary zoning rules from projects with at least five units to projects with at least 30 units.
- Staff proposed motivating developers to reach affordability targets by offering incentives including increased lot sizes, increased height allowance and reduced buffer requirements.
- The amended LUMO would change the calculation formula for affordable housing targets from the current formula requiring 15 percent of market-rate units to be designated as affordable housing to requiring 13 percent of all units to be affordable.
- “I share the interest in the small-scale infill, so I think I’m glad we’re not precluding that,” Mayor Jess Anderson said. “And I’m glad that we’re still getting inclusionary zoning at the larger number of units.”
What decisions were made?
The Council approved the affordable housing resolution in an 8-1 vote. Mayor Pro Tem Amy Ryan voted against the resolution to unify after stating concerns about the resolution lacking clarification that limited staff’s authority to adjust solely administrative processes.
The Town Manager approved four requested modifications to the Land Use Management Ordinance requirements allowing the development to have less tree coverage, landscaping buffers and parking spaces at the Finley Golf Course.
What’s Next?
- The Council will meet next on Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Town Hall.
