The east side of Burlington, which hasn’t had many new apartment complexes in recent years, could get two, based on projects considered this week by the city’s planning board, which recommended both to the city council.
Both proposed projects are near the Walmart along Graham-Hopedale Road.
The smaller project, with 56 apartments, would be built on 4.4 acres at 2002 North Mebane Street on the northern portion of what was once the Fairchild airport decades ago.
[Story continues below photo, map of 2002 North Mebane Street.]
Anderea Gonzalez said her Charlotte-based company, Fitch Irick, hopes to build two, three-story apartment buildings targeting low-income residents, as well as a clubhouse. The “income-qualified” housing would require residents to have incomes within the range of 40 percent to 60 percent of the median income for Alamance County.
The plan envisions 10 one-bedroom apartments; 22 2-bedroom units; 18 with three bedrooms; and 6 with four bedrooms. There are 98 parking spaces proposed, more than 1.5 per apartment, Burlington’s uniform standard for an acceptable parking ratio calculation (56 apartments would necessitate 84 spaces).
There are no elevators for the three-story buildings, and no pool, even though there is a clubhouse.
Gonzalez expressed enthusiasm for the complex’s accessibility to Burlington’s Link Transit bus system (she said a bus stop is across the street from the future apartment complex).
Planning board vice chairman James Kirkpatrick made the motion to approve the rezoning request, which was adopted 6-0 by planning board members.
On the opposite side of Walmart
On the southernmost tip of the former Fairchild airport, at the corner of Graham-Hopedale Road and Hanover Road on the border with Graham.
Richard Angino’s Winston-Salem-based company, Third Wave Housing, is proposing to build 190 apartments on a 17.5-acre site; all the apartments would be one- and two-bedroom.
Angino said that the concentration on one- and two-bedroom sizes was because “households are getting really small.” He attributed part of that influence to the growing proportion of residents age 55 and above who are now gravitating to apartments.
Angino estimated that about one-third of the residents would likely be seniors.
Like the other complex, the Third Wave development would consist of “three story walk-ups,” with no elevator, although he said a pool is still a possibility.
There would be entrances along both Graham-Hopedale and Hanover roads, Angino told the planning board.
Angino also told the planning board that no decision has yet been made on whether the target audience for the apartment complex would be “workforce housing” (Angino’s preferred terminology to low-income or income-based) or market-rate.
Angino is perhaps best known among some in local housing quarters as the moving force behind the Oneida Mills Apartments in Graham, where a former textile mill was renovated into loft apartments; he was also involved in the Mebane Mill Lofts in Mebane – although with a different company from the one for which he is now associated.
Angino noted that his company has done both historic renovation projects, like Oneida, as well as freestanding new construction, such as being proposed for the corner of Graham-Hopedale and Hanover roads.
[Story continues below photos, map of 832 Graham-Hopedale Road.]
Board chairman Richard Parker asked planning board members before consideration of each of the two projects whether anyone had a potential conflict of interest before divulging that he, himself, had a conflict with the second one since he works for the property’s current owners, the Kourys of Carolina Hosiery Mill.
The rezoning request was ultimately approved, 5-0, by the remaining members of the planning and zoning commission.
Both projects will likely be on the agenda for the city council during March.
