More than 20 locals gathered Thursday evening at a community meeting to discuss a potential conditional rezoning for 2929 Market St., currently the location of the Azalea Inn & Suites.

If developers succeed in getting a zoning that allows multifamily development, "affordable" apartments could replace the motel, which was built in 1963, according to tax records. The property is currently zoned O&I, office and institutional, the records show.

The meeting, led by land use attorney Amy Schaefer, featured multiple members of the project’s development team, and they unpacked various matters concerning the proposed apartments, including the number of units, the traffic impact, the stormwater management system and the construction timeline.

The project by Blue Ridge Atlantic Development could be financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, which is administered by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, Schaefer said.

“We’re looking at 120 multifamily units, and as I said, they would all be affordable units,” Schaefer said. She also added that the property will include four-story buildings, parking, amenities, elevators, a tree-safe area and a buffer around the residential areas.

When asked about the different types of units on the property, Schaefer said that there’d be 48 one-bedroom apartments, 40 two-bedroom apartments and 32 three-bedroom apartments.

And as for rent, Sam Weldon, vice president of development for Blue Ridge Atlantic Development, said that rents could range from $600 to $1,700 a month.

Addressing stormwater, Schaefer said that it wouldn’t be fully designed out at the site.

“How stormwater is typically handled is the engineers look at it,” she said. “They know kind of what the soils are, how things flow, where things go, and if the rezoning is approved, then they will drill down on the specifics of stormwater, and they would have to go through all kinds of separate stormwater permitting.”

She added that traffic impact analysis isn’t required for the project but shared that the developers did hire a consultant for traffic. The development team’s traffic engineer, Don Bennett, was also present during the meeting and said that the site would generate 60 trips in and out in the morning and 60 trips in and out in the evening.

When asked about the timeline for getting the project up and running, Schaefer said the team hoped to submit to the city on Friday for the rezoning, adding that the process usually takes two or three months.

Throughout the meeting, audience members asked several questions, including how the development team defined “affordable.” Those in attendance also asked about the project’s impact on traffic in the area, how many square feet each building would be and whether the new project would maintain privacy for those whose properties surround it.

For the LIHTC program, “affordable” is typically defined as the cost of rent plus utilities when it doesn’t exceed 30% of the tenant’s gross monthly income.

As for the project’s construction timeline, Weldon said it would likely take 16 to 18 months to complete.