CHAPEL HILL -- The developers of the neo-urban Southern Village community near the Chatham County line have proposed a six-story building in the middle of the village center.

It would tower over neighboring structures, including the 60-foot spire on Christ United Methodist Church.

In a concept plan submitted to the Chapel Hill Planning Department last month, the developers said the new building would "complete" the village center, replacing a large surface parking lot in the middle of the 300-acre development.

"A hotel or new residential condominium building could be a third 'anchor' in the Village Center, along with Weaver Street and the Lumina Theatre," states a developer's program submitted by Rosemary Waldorf, a former Chapel Hill mayor who now works as a project manager for developers D.R. Bryan and John Fugo.

In order to approve the project, the Chapel Hill Town Council must change the zoning of the entire village center to create a "Mixed-Use Village" -- a designation that did not exist when Southern Village was developed in the late 1990s.

Right now, the total square footage of buildings in the village is capped at about 370,000, and the existing buildings account for nearly that much space already.

The proposal for 90,000 additional square feet would take the village to about 440,000 square feet, not counting about 58,000 in structured parking below the building.

The new zoning would eliminate the square-footage caps, requiring only that at least one-quarter of the space be for residential use and at least one-quarter for office or commercial use.

"It gives the building owners here a little bit more flexibility in responding to the market," Waldorf said.