At an October 7 meeting, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously voted to rezone a four-acre site at the intersection of Weaver Dairy Road Extension and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to allow for both a new fire station and neighboring affordable housing community.
The current Fire Station 4 is more than 40 years old and “beyond repair.” Its new facility will be built next to the old one, and once open, the town plans to demolish the former building and create affordable housing in its footprint. According to the town’s Housing and Community Development Assistant Director for Affordable Housing Emily Holt, the project puts two needed community benefits in one place.
“This site has all the things, probably, that we look for for affordable housing,” Holt said. “It’s got the forthcoming bus rapid transit line, it’s a gateway intersection to the town, and it’s surrounded by a variety of amenities. So as you can imagine, it had a lot of interest from the development community. We’re excited tonight to be able to share that we’ve selected our affordable housing development partner, Laurel Street.”
The housing development project aims to provide up to 105 multifamily units. Adhering to the town’s Complete Communities framework, all housing units on the site will be affordable, with about a quarter of them rented at or below 60% AMI. The town plans to finance the project with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the state government, as well as a portion of funds from a 2024 bond referendum for affordable housing and public facilities.
Last week’s meeting also provided an overview of the site’s initial design and layout. Both properties are within walking distance to grocery, pharmacy, medical offices, and restaurants and are located along existing transit stops and bike routes. The upcoming NS bus rapid transit service would be located on the housing development’s frontage, with a multi-use path across the street extending to Town Hall. The current design also includes green stormwater management by way of a constructed wetland.
Details for the future affordable housing development that will be built in the footprint of former Fire Station 4. (Image via Town of Chapel Hill.)
Fire Station 4 will use about $10 million of the referendum funds, with the remaining $5 million planned for the eventual replacement of Fire Station 3 at the intersection of East Franklin Street and South Elliott Road. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Jay Mebane said the replacement initiatives follow a 2021 fire department station location, condition, and staffing study.
“What we found out in that study was three of our fire stations are in poor condition with one of them being Station 4,” Mebane said. “It’s a 44 year old fire station built in 1982 and in dire need of replacement.
“This is in the public’s interest,” he continued. “It is a public benefit and we’re glad to be complemented by affordable housing, as well as complement an affordable housing complex.”
The planned sites of the new Fire Station 4 and affordable housing development at the intersection of Weaver Dairy Road Extension and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. (Image via Town of Chapel Hill)
Although part of the evening’s unanimous vote, Council Member Melissa McCullough said she is disappointed by how Fire Station 4 has to be destroyed and rebuilt at all.
“The greenest building is the one that’s already built,” McCullough said. “And it’s not cost effective for us to completely have to replace fire stations every 40 years. So as we go forward and design a new fire station as well as the housing, I hope that we take into account or that the developer with the builder takes into account the fact that it’s we would like to have a building that is cost efficient throughout its life cycle and, and that we hope we don’t have to completely replace this next one in 40 years.”
Another critique for the project came from Council Member Amy Ryan, who said while she supports the project, its request to reduce the tree canopy to 11% gives her “heartburn.”
“I have spent hours with my colleagues talking about LUMO and making new LUMO regulations for trees and trying to figure out the best way to do this,” Ryan said. “And again and again, when we come to individual projects, we ask for really big changes to that. And we can’t keep doing that.
“We need to set standards that are reasonable and we need to start making people adhere to them,” she continued. “And I know when you look at a project like this to say, ‘Well, it’s the trees or the people.’ I get it. But also the trees are the things that help keep our people healthy. So we need to do better.”
To hear the full discussion from the October 7 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, click here.
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