CHAPEL HILL - The Chapel Hill Planning Board unanimously endorsed the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service's proposed men's transitional housing facility Tuesday night.

The board recommended the Town Council approve the agency's Special Use Permit application later this year.

The two-level building would have 52 resident beds and 17 emergency overnight cots at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., off of Homestead Road. The new facility would include a dental clinic for program residents and offer job coaching and other services to help homeless men move to permanent housing.

The Planning Board added a stipulation that the IFC draft a Good Neighbor Plan. That agreement - between the IFC and the Chapel Hill Police Department; UNC, which donated the land; United Church of Chapel Hill, which adjoins the site; and other neighbors of the project - would identify "best neighbor practices" and would have to be approved by Town Manager Roger Stancil.

"I think the applicant has gone above and beyond to try to meet community concerns," said Michael Collins, Planning Board chairman.

In the Good Neighbor Plan, the IFC will outline its security policy, pledge to be vigilant about any activity that occurs and maintain a close relationship with the Police Department, said Chris Moran, IFC executive director.

But a critic of the proposed site said the plan doesn't go far enough.

"There are no teeth in the Good Neighbor Plan that the town has very loosely defined," said Mark Peters, who represents a group of neighbors. "There is no mechanism for enforcement by the town, nor for legal avenues for neighbors when there are ongoing negative impacts or serious acute impacts."

The IFC does not plan to screen men seeking one of the emergency overnight beds for drugs or alcohol. Men who are enrolled as full-time residents of the transitional program must remain clean and sober, a change from the current shelter policy.

The IFC decided to make the change after hearing resident feedback during community discussions last spring, Moran said.

"We have always tried to listen and hear what people have had to say, and when we felt that there was a need to make a reasonable change we've done that," he said. "If something made sense to us, we made the change."

About 15 supporters of the project were at the Planning Board meeting. Peters asked the Planning Board to delay a decision until neighbors had more time to review the IFC's updated SUP materials, which were released during the holidays. (See his letter to the editor, page 6)

Although the board declined to delay, it did refer the neighbors' concerns to the Town Council to consider when the Council decides whether to approve the project. A public hearing on the transitional facility will be held March 21 at Town Hall.