After 10 years, and many fits and starts, the Durham City Council has a plan for bringing affordable housing to the site of the former police headquarters in downtown Durham.
At the March 19 work session, the city council received a presentation that offered two possible scenarios. Both include building 80 units of affordable housing on a portion of the 505 West Chapel Hill Street site using the competitive 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) from the federal government, which the city would have to apply for and win. The units would be available to folks earning at or below 60% of the area median income (AMI).
The main difference between the two plans stems from where to construct the parking. The first scenario suggests an 80-space surface parking lot adjacent to a newly constructed building. The second scenario—preferred by the majority of the city council—suggests building five stories of housing on top of two floors of structured parking. The latter plan would increase the necessary funding needed for the project, but ultimately, the structured parking would save the city money by allowing it to use the remainder of the property in a more productive manner…