CHAPEL HILL, NC - The town must look for ways to keep housing affordable and not just build more affordable housing in order to fight gentrification, two Greenbridge developers said Sunday. Internationalist Books and Community Center held a meeting to discuss the 10-story condominium and retail project coming to the corner of Graham and West Rosemary streets. Greenbridge will use solar and other features to reduce its energy footprint at least 20 percent over a conventional building its size, developer Tim Toben said. The project has won plaudits across the country.
The developers are including 15 low-priced units in the 100-unit project to meet the town's affordable-housing requirement. The affordable units will sell for $80,000 to $90,000, compared to $500,000 to $600,000 for most of the other units, Toben said. But by sticking to a strict interpretation of its policy, Toben and one of his partners, Frank Phoenix, said the town passed up an alternative that would have done more good for more people.
The developers had offered to do free energy audits in the surrounding Northside and Pine Knolls neighborhoods and pay for work they say could have cut some residents' utility bills in half. "Energy costs today are going crazy," Toben said. "Even in 2006 when we were first starting, we figured we could drop energy costs between 20 and 50 percent."
On Monday, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy acknowledged the town may have missed an opportunity. "I thought that was a good proposal," he said. But the town review process was under way, he said, and town staff weren't ready to "wing it" without more details. "It sounds good in theory, but when people started asking questions there weren't specific answers," Foy said. Previous developers had met the affordability policy by pricing 15 percent of units inside their projects at levels people making 80 percent of the median income could pay.
That's why the town also rejected a proposal that would have helped Greenbridge meet the requirement by rehabbing existing dilapidated homes in the neighborhoods. But recently, Foy said, the council has begun reconsidering its policy. Across town, Roger Perry initially offered to make 30 percent of his East 54 units affordable in exchange for greater density. East 54 sits on the site of the old University Inn.
When the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust said the small, affordable units would not attract families, Perry agreed to make 30 percent of his total square footage affordable instead to build larger units, Foy said. On Sunday, Toben and Phoenix told about 20 people at the bookstore they want to see Chapel Hill go farther.
One of the concerns about Greenbridge, the eight-story Municipal Lot 5 condominiums along Church Street and other projects downtown is that they will raise property values in neighboring Northside. That will make it harder for some landowners there to resist selling, but also make it harder for those faced with higher tax bills who want to stay.
Toben said some communities across the country are exploring capping property tax rate increases in gentrifying areas to help keep owner occupants in their homes. Greenbridge already is going to generate $1 million a year in new property taxes, Toben said. "Why should Northside and its residents have to contribute more in taxes?" he said.
Even activists in the room, who might have been expected to come in opposed to the development, recognized market forces are bigger than one project. "The thing about gentrification is it's complicated," said Ruby Sinreich, former town planning board chairwoman. "Every day downtown is more valuable whether you build this or not." North Carolina provides tax breaks for farmland, property owned by nonprofits and government, and through the Homestead Exempti
Source: The Chapel Hill News