Exploring Affordable Residential Development in Chapel Hill

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

By Adam Powell
Correspondent

CHAPEL HILL — In recent years, the town of Chapel Hill has made affordable housing a priority by dedicating available land and adopting policies intended to make it easier for middle- and lower-income residents to find stable places to live.

The town’s Affordable Housing Plan, adopted in fall 2023, estimates that approximately $50 million will be needed over five years to support the development of up to 900 new affordable housing units.

As Chapel Hill leaders prioritized affordable housing in 2025 and 2026, several themes emerged. They focused on projects serving households earning less than 50% of the local area median income, including residents with the greatest housing needs. They also favored developments with more than 50 units to help more residents, while locating housing near future bus rapid transit corridors to make it easier for people to live and work in town.

Those priorities, combined with earlier town council efforts, have helped move more than 300 affordable homes into construction, pre-construction or recent approval through the Affordable Housing Plan. Chapel Hill is also using proceeds from its successful fall 2024 affordable housing bond to preserve existing affordable homes and leverage state and federal tax credits for new construction.

Together, recent council agendas, funding decisions and the town’s active development list point to the following major affordable housing projects now planned or under construction in Chapel Hill.

Carver Street Townhomes (Carver Street)

A Habitat for Humanity project, Carver Street Townhomes was approved by the Town Council and awarded $375,000 in funding by Chapel Hill in spring 2024. The project includes 12 affordable housing units restricted to first-time homebuyers earning 30% to 80% of area median income. The neighborhood is expected to be completed in 2027.

Homestead Gardens (2200 Homestead Road)

One of the largest affordable housing projects currently underway in Chapel Hill is at Homestead Gardens, which lies on town-owned property. The project broke ground in March and will feature 87 affordable homes for households earning up to about 115% of area median income.

Homestead Gardens will have a combination of rental apartments and for-sale duplexes and townhomes. The community, expected to be completed sometime in 2028, will feature walking trails, a basketball court, and a multi-use greenway.

This project, which began when the Town of Chapel Hill dedicated a 14-acre parcel for affordable and mixed-income housing in 2017, took six years to progress from initial conception to an approved site plan.

Longleaf Trace (1712 Legion Road)

A new affordable rental community, Longleaf Trace is a partnership between Taft-Mills Group, a Greenville-based developer of affordable housing units, and Community Home Trust, a local housing advocate that has been involved in numerous affordable housing projects throughout Chapel Hill, including Homestead Gardens, Tanyard Branch Trace, Summit at Homestead, Coker Place, and South Creek, among others.

Longleaf Trace, currently in pre-construction and expected to be completed in 2027, features 48 affordable units that are 100% income-restricted.

Maddry Meadows Homestead Road Affordable Housing (2510 Homestead Road)

At 2510 Homestead Road, construction has begun on a 53-unit affordable housing project for residents 55 and older. The community, approved in spring 2025, includes one- and two-bedroom units.

This project is strategically located across from the Orange County Seymour Senior Center on Homestead Road, which provides a wide range of services for older residents. Maddry Meadows is one of multiple projects that Chapel Hill has aligned with DHIC, an affordable housing developer that also developed Greenfield Place and Greenfield Commons in Chapel Hill. Greenfield Place won the Triangle Business Journal’s SPACE Award for best multifamily development in 2019.

PEACH Apartments (109 N. Graham Street)

The Pine Knoll Empowerment Affordable Community Housing (PEACH) project is Chapel Hill’s first affordable multi-unit housing complex built entirely with community funding and no debt. After nearly $4 million in donations, the community broke ground in fall 2023 and held a ribbon-cutting and grand opening in spring 2025, drawing numerous residents, local elected officials, dignitaries and future owners.

PEACH Apartments features 10 units intended for extremely low-income residents earning between 0% and 30% of local area median income.

Tanyard Branch Trace (110 Jay Street)

Tanyard Branch Trace is a 48-unit affordable and workforce housing project featuring two three-story buildings. Another partnership between the town of Chapel Hill, Community Home Trust and Taft-Mills Group, Tanyard Branch Trace is intended for households earning between 30% and 60% of local area median income.

The project, which received a 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency in 2023, will include a mix of one- to three-bedroom units. The community was originally expected to open to new residents in late 2026, but Community Home Trust now projects completion in 2028.

Trinity Court Redevelopment (751 Trinity Court)

A major redevelopment of an existing affordable apartment community, Trinity Court has drawn repeated discussion by Chapel Hill’s Town Council because it preserves existing affordable housing while replacing aging buildings. Trinity Court was built with 40 units in 1975 and vacated in 2018 after more than four decades of service to the community.

Significant work was needed to bring the site up to modern standards because the existing buildings had deteriorated. It took four years — from spring 2020, when town officials first called for a comprehensive redevelopment, to summer 2024, when crews broke ground — to prepare the site for new residents.

Trinity Court will feature 54 affordable apartments, and construction is expected to finish later this year. The project is a partnership between Chapel Hill and Community Housing Partners, a nonprofit that provides housing services to low-income residents.

Weavers Grove (Weavers Grove Drive)

Developed by Habitat for Humanity, Weavers Grove is a 32-acre mixed-income community that will offer single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, and condominiums near East Chapel Hill High School.

Weavers Grove, which welcomed its first residents earlier this year, will feature 225 homes when construction is completed in 2028. Of those units, 102 will be affordable to households earning up to 80% of area median income.

Adam Powell has been a correspondent for The Local Reporter since 2023. A 2001 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Powell has served as managing editor of multiple local publications, including the News of Orange County, the Mebane Enterprise, the Caswell Messenger, and the ACC Sports Journal. The author of four books. Adam currently resides in Mebane with his wife Julie and children Colt and Jenna. This reporter can be reached at:Information@TheLocal Reporter.press