CHAPEL HILL - Neighbors got part of what they wanted regarding the Town Council's consideration of a new men's homeless shelter near Homestead Park.

The council directed the Planning Board to prepare guidelines to help the town evaluate the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service's application to build the shelter. But council members stopped short of asking for strict development standards to dictate how and where it's built.

Neighbors, many of whom oppose the shelter site, had feared the Planning Board would craft rules too late to apply to Community House. The IFC submitted its permit application to Town Hall on Monday.

The council did ask the board to work over the summer to provide potential stipulations for a permit application the council could consider later this year or next.

Those stipulations, though, won't bind the IFC unless the council adopts them as part of the review process. That makes some think the site off Homestead Road is a foregone conclusion.

"The town is simply wiggling and jiggling, changing policies in order to make this work," said neighbor John Walker.

But Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt insisted the council might not approve the permit application.

"That might not even be where this project goes," he said. "We all need to have an open mind."

Still, some neighbors demanded a public site search.

"[Former] Mayor Foy, [former UNC] Chancellor Moeser and the IFC getting together does not constitute a public process," said Tim CoyneSmith.

Councilman Matt Czajkowski voiced one of the neighbors' persistent questions: How was the Homestead site chosen over other sites? Town Manager Roger Stancil said the IFC wanted a site that wouldn't require any rezoning, which eliminated most locations in town.

"It wasn't a very scientific process of identifying multiple pieces of land and weighing them against the criteria," said Stancil. "Very few sites met the criteria."

Kleinschmidt said the IFC had considered several other sites in the 25 years since it "temporarily" moved into the old town offices at the corner of North Columbia and West Rosemary streets.

"This shelter is not our shelter. It's the IFC's shelter," said Councilwoman Donna Bell, though the town would own the 1.66 acres donated by UNC in the deal announced at a press conference two summers ago. "The IFC, just like any other developer, got to choose the site where they want to put their development."