Town of Chapel Hill hosting Open Houses for Greenway, Senior Affordable Housing projects

GOVERNMENT

By Adam Powell
Correspondent

On the evening of Thursday, January 23, the Town of Chapel Hill is hosting a pair of Open Houses to provide more details and get the community more familiar with a series of proposed greenway and infrastructure improvements, as well as a proposed Senior Affordable apartments community along Homestead Road.

From 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday night, The Town of Chapel Hill is hosting a Bolin Creek Greenway/Estes Drive Extension Open House. The meeting will be held at the Chapel Hill Public Library, Meeting Room B. For more details about the Bolin Creek Extension project, visit here. For more details about the Estes Drive Extension project, visit here.

“Join Town staff and our project consultant for an open house to learn about the Bolin Creek Greenway Extension and Estes Drive Ext. bike-ped projects,” the town states on its website. “We invite you to ask questions, share your opinions on different designs, and review maps, renderings, and technical details about the options.”

Chapel Hill seeking to extend length of Bolin Creek Greenway

Upon its completion, the proposed Bolin Creek Greenway extension extends the length of the Bolin Creek Greenway from Umstead Park to Estes Drive. The 2.5-mile Bolin Creek Parkway connects the Tanyard Branch Trail – a 0.4-mile paved surface trail through a wooded floodplain that connects the Northside community with Umstead Park and Bolin Creek – to the Chapel Hill Community Center, located at 120 S. Estes Drive.

“This project is part of our Everywhere to Everywhere Greenways strategy to create a network of greenways that provide useful, accessible, safe, and connected transportation options,” the town states on its website. “While construction is a few years away, we will collect community input in the coming months. Check back soon for additional engagement opportunities.”

The Estes Drive Bicycle and Pedestrian project, which is currently in the design phase, will add bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to an area of Chapel Hill that recently completed constructing a series of bike lanes along Estes Drive. Eventually, the project will extend infrastructure to the future Bolin Creek Greenway Extension and connect to Carrboro’s infrastructure.

“The project is part of the Town’s Everywhere-to-Everywhere Greenways network. It aims to make a useful, accessible, safe, and connected transportation greenway system for all ages and abilities,” the town states on its website.

NV5, an engineering and technology consulting firm, works with the Town of Chapel Hill on the Bolin Creek Greenway and Estes Drive Bicycle and Pedestrian projects. Both projects realistically look at a time frame of 2027 to 2028 before construction can begin.

Plans call for 53 affordable senior housing units along Homestead Road

Also, on Thursday night, the Chapel Hill Planning Department is hosting a public information meeting to discuss the proposed CZD (conditional zoning district) application for a future multi-family residential development at 2510 Homestead Road. The meeting, which runs from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m, will be hosted virtually on Zoom. To register for the Zoom meeting, click the link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2PeHR9BcRPWvbiyMvXOneA 

According to the project’s website, plans at 2510 Homestead Road call for 53 housing units within a three-story primary building. All 53 housing units will be eligible for lease by residents 55 or older who meet certain affordable housing thresholds based on family income.

The 53 units would include a mixture of 1 and 2-bedroom units. The project will run along Homestead Rd. but is intended to avoid sensitive adjacent areas, including the Jordan streamside buffer and Booker Creek. The site is approximately 5.8 acres, with nearly two-thirds of the land within the Chapel Hill Resource Conservation District.

The project is the brainchild of DHIC, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing high-quality housing communities in the Triangle region of NC.

“The site is well-situated for senior affordable housing, directly across Homestead Road from the Seymour Senior Center, and adjacent to Homestead Park and the Homestead Aquatic Center,” DHIC states in its project narrative. “In addition, the site has direct access to the HS Route and is within a quarter mile of the Orange County Senior Shuttle and the future BRT on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Our development will provide much-needed affordable housing in an attractive location in Chapel Hill, providing residents with economic and social opportunities that are otherwise unavailable.”

For additional details about Thursday evening’s Open Houses, click on the links below:

Bolin Creek Extension/Estes Drive Open House (Thursday, January 23, 6:00 p.m.)

2510 Homestead Road DHIC development virtual Open House (Thursday, January 23, 5:00 p.m.)

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