The Shortbread Lofts, a seven-story apartment building planned for 333 W. Rosemary St. has been reduced in height and size since it was first proposed in 2006. Now some Town Council members say developers need to work on the building's appearance.

The team behind the Shortbread Lofts presented its plan Wednesday night. Their pictures showed a modern architectural style with flat windows against a mustard-yellow building facade.

Council member Matt Czajkowski compared the building to Greenbridge, which he likened to a "70s' Soviet bloc" style.

"In the end buildings like these will define the aesthetic of downtown for decades to come," Czajkowski said. "I look at this building, and I can't see any basis on which it reflects the nature of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina ... it does remind me very much, dismayingly, of Greenbridge."

Putting in different windows alone could make a huge improvement, he said.

"I just absolutely don't understand any of the architecture of this building," he said. "As far as I'm concerned we just cannot afford aesthetically to have another Greenbridge in the middle of downtown."

Council member Laurin Easthom agreed.

"I don't like the way it looks; it's not interesting whatsoever to me," she said.

Typically, a building's aesthetics are not a part of the Special Use Permit process. After a developer gets an SUP to build a project, the Community Design Commission approves the architecture and appearance of the building.

Council members Gene Pease and Jim Ward weren't as concerned with the building's appearance but wondered how the building would affect neighboring businesses.

The Shortbread Lofts proposes 85 rental apartments, and 121 parking spaces on 1.4 acres between Mitchell Lane and Church Street. The first floor would have 3,560 square feet of retail.

Developers are offering to give $25,000 to Empowerment, an affordable housing group in town, to bolster affordable rental properties in the Northside neighborhood, or to expand the town's Inclusionary Zoning Task Force's mission to create an affordable rental housing program. Or, a third option they propose would provide for affordable units if the apartments ever convert to condominiums.

The Planning Board has recommended approval of the plan.

Developer Phil Post said the Shortbread Lofts fulfill the town's goals for downtown and improve West Rosemary Street.

"It's a smaller project than the council saw before, and that responds directly to comments we received from before," he said. "We think this is absolutely [the] right size."

Hudson Vaughan, associate director of the Jackson Center in the Northside neighborhood, said residents have concerns about the construction's impact on traffic and whether the building will become a student development.

"I'd really like to see, if this is approved, that they really show how we're going to address some of the implications that it would have in the surrounding community," he said.

Diane Robertson, who is involved in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, agreed.

"It [is] a question of bringing in more rental property into an area that is already being stressed by student and non-student housing," she said.

Scott Radway, a development consultant, disagreed. He said the development will cater to all kinds of people and doesn't add a huge amount of housing.

"I don't remember the applicant framing this as a student housing development," he said. "The issue is how do we provide more opportunities for rental housing in the downtown."

The council will consider the proposal again Feb. 27.