The Complete Community Strategy initiative started as a follow-up to the 2021 Housing Report and has made progress working with Town staff, community leaders, and the Town Council over the last few months. The project assessed capacity throughout the entire town of Chapel Hill to determine where and how to meet current and future housing needs. The work plan outlines the path to project completion, developed by the project team: Jennifer Keesmaat & Alex Mather with The Keesmaat Group, Jennifer Hurley with Hurley~Franks & Associates, and Rod Stevens with Business Street. 

Most recently, consultant Jennifer Keesmaat with The Keesmaat Group met with the Town Council at a Council Work Session open to the public on November 30th, 2022. She gave a presentation to both audiences to provide an update on Complete Community Strategy and discuss the possible pilot project options. A “Complete Community” has diverse types of housing, active and transit transportation with connections, pedestrian-orientated design with cycling and walking paths, and mixed-use buildings. The presentation by Keesmaat includes more detailed features and a comparison to a typical suburban design. The current end goal of this project is to integrate the Complete Community Framework into many of the town’s implementation processes. The consultant team, town staff, and town council created a list of criteria that would be the foundation for how new developments are considered and prioritized. This method of evaluation will drive how we think about the future of Chapel Hill and maintains a more strategic town planning process. 

Using this way of thinking, town staff and council will use six factors in considering potential development projects: speed of implementation, financial viability, magnitude of impact, contribution towards the creation of complete communities, scalability, and social equity considerations. These six areas of evaluation are considered equally and coincide with many federal funding application processes. These criteria will also help guide developers in what to present to the town in a development application. 

Using this way of thinking, town staff and council will use six factors in considering potential development projects: speed of implementation, financial viability, magnitude of impact, contribution towards the creation of complete communities, scalability, and social equity considerations. These six areas of evaluation are considered equally and coincide with many federal funding application processes. These criteria will also help guide developers in what to present to the town in a development application. 

The town council voted to approve the Complete Communities planning model with three pilot projects on December 7th, 2022. The first pilot project “Everywhere to Everywhere Greenways”, includes the town applying for federal funding. This project will focus on upgrading and extending the town’s active transportation infrastructure to increase connections to neighborhoods, particularly for historically marginalized groups. The second pilot project is a short-term development project that would include tearing-down two office buildings on the South side near Midtown Plaza. The third pilot project that was approved is a longer-term development project for future redevelopment at The Parkline office building, located between U.S. 15-501 and Old Durham Road. 

Additional projects were considered and may continue through the development approval process in the future. For now, town staff and council will be working on creating a checklist for developers. This checklist will clarify the town’s expectations to best prepare development applications to comply with Complete Communities. This initiative is exciting progress for a future Chapel Hill that is sustainable, equitable, and resident-focused.