By Joe Collevecchio

You wouldn’t know it walking down Weaver Street, but the Carr Mill property is some of the most expensive in the area.

And although the town’s population has declined slightly in the past five years, property values in Carrboro continue to increase.

With town leaders expecting an upsurge in population over the next few years, managing growth to keep Carrboro a close, affordable and livable community is a must.

“Our growth rate in the current decade has been fairly low,” said Trish McGuire, Carrboro’s planning administrator. “Our population density has gone down slightly, but it’s still high. It’s been high for many years.”

Carrboro is the most densely populated municipality in North Carolina. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have submitted plans to build a new elementary school even as Carrboro High School is set to open at the start of the next academic year. The school system stated in an October report that two additional schools, one elementary school and one middle school, will have to be constructed in the next 10 years to keep up with increased enrollment.

Carrboro also faces a problem stemming from a lack of commercial development.
“The town’s tax base here is primarily residential,” McGuire said. “We have some small portion that’s not residential, but primarily that’s where the burden is, and that’s a problem.”

She said balancing growth with Carrboro’s commitment to protecting the environment and maintaining the area’s aesthetic beauty has resulted in development proposals that emphasize growing Carrboro up as well as out. For Carrboro residents, that means mixed-use projects, as well as taller buildings.

“We’ve got a number of (mixed-use facilities) proposed for Carrboro near Cat’s Cradle,” said Marty Roupe, the town’s development review administrator.

“There are probably a few others, situations downtown where people have been living for years and years. They’re just to get people living downtown, reduce dependency on the automobile and everything that goes along with that.”

He said that one of the stated goals of the Board of Alderman is to double Carrboro’s commercial tax base within the next six years, and that mixed-use developments will help achieve that goal efficiently.

“A few of the applications in front of us now are for four- or five-story buildings,” Roupe said. “It seems to be heading in that direction.”

James Harris, director of community and economic development in Carrboro, said Carrboro may be home to taller buildings in the future, but the town is intent on making sure that they don’t overshadow existing historic properties.

“We had a whole conversation about it, because the concern is that if you go up too high … what effect would that have on the small mill houses?” he said. “We took a whole year and a half to discuss that.”

The result of that discussion, Harris said, was a plan to step the buildings back one story at a time from neighborhoods until they got to five stories downtown.
“That way, it doesn’t look like a tall building up against an ittie-bittie mill house,” he said.
Harris also said the commercial square footage in the Northern Transition Area, a development zone in northern Carrboro, might be increased.

“Right now we have about 5,000 square feet designated out there. That really isn’t enough,” he said. “We have to have a conversation with the public. We can’t just say, ‘We’re going to put 50,000 square feet out there, and that’s it.’ You have to deal with the people, because they live out there.

Carlos Reyes, left, and Alfonso Ramirez check the grade on a newly leveled road in the Claremont development near Homestead Road. Photos by Joe Collevecchio

“Around here, everybody has a voice in how things will grow and develop, so you have to take it step by step.”

The town also is concerned with keeping housing affordable for residents despite rocketing property values.

“Carrboro doesn’t have an affordable housing requirement per se,” Roupe said. “But there is an expectation that 15 percent of affordable housing will be included (in a development).”

Keeping housing affordable is the responsibility of Orange Community Housing Land Trust, a non-profit group created in 2001 when two separate land and housing entities merged. Robert Dowling is the Trust’s executive director.

“Affordable housing tends not to stay affordable here in Chapel Hill and Carrboro because the property values are raised so quickly,” he said. “It shouldn’t be affordable only to the first buyer, but to all subsequent buyers.”

To further this end, Dowling said the Trust leases land to prospective buyers for 99-year terms. Lessees have the same rights and tax privileges as homeowners, but the Land Trust retains all deeds. That way, when a family moves on to another home, the Trust can lease the home again for an affordable price.

Affordable housing units in Carrboro are built to the same quality standards as other homes in a development, and Dowling said the Trust makes sure the homes they lease are well-maintained.

As Carrboro grows, keeping the town’s unique spirit and sense of community alive is on the forefront of local leaders’ minds.

“We have all kinds of people,” Harris said. “We are a very diverse community here in Carrboro. Just go down to Weaver Street on a Thursday afternoon, and you’ll see all the different cultures just blending in together.

“This is a community where all people are involved.”

From left to right: Hector Reyes Lara, Alfonso Ramirez, Carlos Reyes