UNC and town take action on Chapel Hill's housing crunch
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Photo Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Town of Chapel Hill
On the same day that UNC-Chapel Hill announced it would proceed with developing its Carolina North satellite campus, the town of Chapel Hill also passed a sweeping set of reforms meant to make it easier to build new housing in the town.
Why it matters: Local leaders hope those two decisions will give the town more tools to tackle its growing affordable housing shortage that has made it harder for its workforce to live there.
Driving the news: The town council voted Wednesday to update its Land Use Management Ordinance after several months of debate with a goal of encouraging more "missing middle" housing — think the types of housing that fall between single-family homes and large apartment buildings, such as duplexes and cottages.
- And Carolina North is expected to have a significant workforce housing component, according to UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, given that many faculty and staff struggle to find housing.
Zoom in: The town's updated rules, in part, eliminate parking minimums for new development (similar to what Durham and Raleigh have done), increases the allowable sizes of ADUs and duplexes (town staff said size restrictions were keeping many from being built), reduces minimum lot sizes and allows "flag lots" and streamlines the approval process, The News & Observer reported.
- The hope is these changes will make it easier to add more diverse housing choices that are not just single-family homes or large apartment buildings, Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson told Axios.
State of play: A study of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro housing market in 2023 found that the median home there is $150,000 higher than the regional median home price of $488,000.
- At that price point, 80% of UNC faculty and staff would be unable to affordably purchase a home in the town, according to the analysis.
- Another analysis from 2021 found the town's housing production would need to increase by 35% to meet household growth over the next 20 years. That translates to nearly 500 units per year.
- The issue is already being felt in the town's public school system, with Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools leaders blaming housing prices, in part, for its falling enrollment.
Between the lines: Potentially creating more pressure on the town's housing stock is a plan by the university to expand enrollment by 5,000 students over the next decade.
- Those students will have to live somewhere, potentially at Carolina North or scattered around the town off campus.
What they're saying: "We're a really desirable place and that means that we have all the more housing pressure amid a housing crisis nationally," Anderson told Axios.
- "... I think it's incumbent upon us all as partners to really ensure that we are supporting the needs of all the populations that make Chapel Hill run," she added.