Too much, too tall, Chapel Hill Town Council tells Trinitas developer

EDITED ON 2/22/12

Too much density and too much height was the message Monday night from the council to the developers of a proposed student housing complex.

Developers presented their concept plan for Trinitas, a 90-foot tall student housing apartment complex proposed for 602 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. We first wrote about the plan here in January.  The project is being proposed by Trinitas Ventures, based in Lafayette, Ind.

Trinitas would add 319 apartments in four buildings, each seven stories tall, on the site. It would sit behind the Northampton Apartment complex. The Granville Towers student housing complex on West Franklin Street has 1,300 beds. Developers would tear down the Central Park Apartments that are currently on the site. Travis Vencel, the developer is asking the town to grant the project an exception, so that it can be built up to 90 feet tall.

Council members said they're glad Vencel is addressing the need for student housing, but largely agreed that the density is too much.

"I like the idea of the project and we need more student housing close to campus, but I think this is just too much," said Council member Gene Pease.

Council member Ed Harrison agreed.

"You can't buffer that kind of height," he said. "That's a whole lot of height, a whole lot more than you'd reasonably expect."

Trinitas' concept plan includes less parking spaces than apartments. Some council members didn't like that, others supported it.

"We need complexes like this, we need to encourage ridership this," said Council member Penny Rich." [This] is moving into the 21st century, not everybody has to have a car."

Council member Matt Czajkowski questioned whether Trinitas was dense so that developers could make a profit, or was dense because it really was the best use of land. He also warned developers about the challenges of having to fight a protest petition on the project, which would require a supermajority vote of the council to pass.

"I think you're going to have to reduce the density ultimately and make sure you know what you're getting into if you need a supermajortyt for the zoning change," he said.

Several residents who live near the proposed development on Hillsborough Street said the building would be too high and create too much traffic and noise.

 "We are very concerned about the height, you can see form those photos as originally proposed, [it's] pretty massive," said Tanya Freeman, whose house neighbors the proposed development. "We are concered about the parking, still lots of cars and lot of kids we're concerned about having lots of balconies."

Janet Smith, who's a member of Neighbors for Responsible Growth said if the town grants an exception for building height for Trinitas, it will set a new precedent, and everyone will be asking for exceptions.

"You can expect the next developer down the hill to say, 'well 90 is the new norm,'" she said.