DHIC proposes affordable senior housing complex on Homestead Road

GOVERNMENT; GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

By Adam Powell
Correspondent

CHAPEL HILL—On Thursday, Jan. 23, the Town of Chapel Hill’s Planning Department held a public virtual meeting to make the community aware of a project called Maddry Meadows, a 53-unit affordable-housing project proposed by Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation (DHIC) at 2510 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.

Anya Grahn-Federmack and Katherine Shor of the Town of Chapel Hill’s Planning Department facilitated the meeting, while DHIC Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development Natalie Britt, DHIC Senior Project Manager Patrick Nerz, and David Brown, PLA, LEED AP, a land planner and landscape architect with Cline Design, represented the development team.

“We’ve been at this for quite some time,” explained Nerz. “We’ve been looking at the property and portions of the property (at 2510 Homestead Road) for almost two years now. So we’re really excited that it’s gotten to this point to have the rezoning (come before the Chapel Hill Town Council later this year), and we have an application into the Housing Finance Agency. So we’re very excited about it.”

According to the developer’s presentation notes, current plans call for 53 housing units within one ¾-split-level building. There will be a mixture of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and studio-apartment layouts, with all units intended for residents that are at or under the 60th percentile of the Area Median Income (AMI) threshold. All units will have connection hookups for washers and dryers and a common laundry area for residents.

Plans call for 53 affordable housing units, anticipated 2028 completion

Along with the 53 individual housing units, the developer is looking to construct an onsite multi-purpose room, library, computer/business center, and gathering/seating areas. The property, including onsite property management services, will also have a screened-in porch for its residents.

The project timeline anticipates construction starting in mid-2026 with completion by the end of 2028, pending approvals and funding through the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s (NCHFA) Qualified Allocation Plan.

DHIC has constructed 55 apartment complexes dating back to 1974, all in the state of North Carolina. The complexes include more than 3,600 individual housing units across nine different counties in the Tar Heel State. One of DHIC’s projects includes Greenfield Place, an affordable housing complex featuring 80 units at 150 Formosa Lane in Chapel Hill.

The company has earned the NCHFA Housing NC Award for Best Rental Development on six different occasions. In addition, the organization has earned multiple SPACE awards from the Triangle Business Journal and won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for community appearance eight times.

“In over 50 years, we have never sold a property and have never had a property remove affordability restrictions,” stated the organization in its presentation materials. “We continue to invest in our existing portfolio to ensure high-quality housing for all DHIC residents.”

“We’ve got a very long-term kind of focus on our projects, and continually reinvest (in our communities),” stated Nerz himself. “And it’s not about developing and selling shortly thereafter. It’s a long-term commitment for us. Our bread-and-butter projects are affordable projects, 100% affordable projects using mostly the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which means that our units are affordable to households between, normally between 30% of Area Median Income and 60% of Area Median Income.”

Proximity to Seymour Center motivating 55-and-older designation

Nerz cited the proposed development’s close proximity to the Seymour Center as a compelling reason to develop a senior affordable housing complex on this specific site at 2510 Homestead Road.

“Because of the proximity to the Seymour Center, we are considering this to be where we’re applying to be a 55-plus age-restricted community, which is something that we do fairly often,” explained Nerz. “The building itself is, because of the topography, a three/four split-level building.”

“(At) 2510 Homestead Road, we are directly across the street from the Seymour Center, the Orange County Senior Center, and then very close to Homestead Park, the Aquatic Center, MLK (Boulevard) and access to I-40, access to Franklin Street and UNC,” continued Nerz. “And we have access to Chapel Hill transit bus routes: the HS Route.”

DHIC is currently planning on offering approximately eight of the 53 total units (or roughly 15% of the total units planned for development) for residents currently at or under 50% of Chapel Hill’s AMI, with another 13 to 14 units (approximately 25% of the total planning housing supply at the complex) dedicated for residents at or under 30% of Chapel Hill’s local AMI.

The development will include an elevator system that provides access to all four floors of the residential building and handrails within the hallways on both sides. Certain units will be specifically designed to assist older residents with navigational and day-to-day living needs. There will also be so-called “D poles” (also known as “azy Susan”-style cabinets) which provide seniors with more readily available access than traditional cabinets. There will also be handicapped-accessible parking throughout the complex.

“We do the NCHFA requirements, (which) require accessibility throughout the entirety of the site. They’re very serious about that,” explained Nerz. “I know that we have the five-percent roll-in shower. Five percent of the units have to go kind of above and beyond typical, what’s called Type A, accessibility. They’ll have roll-in showers in the bathroom. And then we typically put grab bars in all the bathrooms and senior projects. Since it’s elevator multi-story, it will follow the fair housing design guidelines. And then for sight and hearing impaired, (there’s) kind of extra equipment there for folks who need that assistance.”

Now that the town has held a public meeting on the proposed project, Maddry Meadows will likely begin the technical review process, which will lead to a presentation before the Town Council sometime later this year.

“We’re going to be doing some internal rounds of review with our technical review team,” explained Grahn-Federmack. “We’ll be looking at the plans in the technical review team: folks in the Fire Marshal office, Engineering, Stormwater, Planning, and Parks and Rec–the whole gamut. And so once we get through that phase, then the project will proceed to the Planning Commission and then the Town Council. And it will eventually be the Town Council who approves or denies the project.”

Adam Powell is a reporter on local news and sports and an education communications professional. A 2001 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Powell has served as managing editor of multiple local publications, including the Mebane Enterprise, News of Orange County and TarHeelIllustrated.com. The public information officer for Rockingham County Schools in Eden, N.C., Powell is the author of four books and lives in Mebane with his wife and two children. This reporter can be reached at: Info@TheLocal Reporter.press