Nothing new there. The Butler, going between the ArtsCenter and Libba Cotton Bikeway, will join the Alberta and Roberson Square condominium buildings previously approved for downtown. The Alberta will be behind Armadillo Grill; Roberson Square across from Open Eye Cafe.

What was new -- a first for Carrboro -- was the Board of Aldermen's decision to accept fewer affordable units in The Butler than the town's rules require.

The town requires developers to make 15 percent of their units affordable to buyers making 80 percent of the area median income. For a single person, the income limit is $39,950.

Instead of nine affordable units, the 57-unit Butler will have five affordable units.

Developer Urban Ventures LLC will pay up to $100,000 for each of the other four units into the town's affordable housing fund.

The decision to take the money instead of the units was significant, said Robert Dowling, executive director of the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust, which sells most of Carrboro and Chapel Hill's affordable housing.

Dowling has been asking for such payments for two years. His agency needs the money to help maintain existing affordable units and to hire staff as the agency's workload grows.

Besides, he and others say, the two towns' affordable housing policies -- a 15 percent requirement in Carrboro, a 15 percent guideline in Chapel Hill -- aren't working like they were supposed to.

To meet the requirement, developers are offering tiny units.

Urban Ventures had proposed 430-square-foot affordable studios, Dowling said.

"That's pretty small," he said.

One-bedroom affordable units in Greenbridge, 140 West Franklin, and East 54 -- all Chapel Hil projects -- are under 750 square feet, he said.

"Who is going to buy these units?" Dowling said. "Are they going to be teachers and reporters and social workers, or are they going to be grad students and post docs?"

If it's the latter, Dowling said, their owners will live there a couple of years and move on. The units will come back to the land trust to resell.

And that's another problem, he said.

The land trust is looking at close to 150 affordable units coming on the market, Dowling said. His agency, with five full-time and two part-time staffers, will have its hands full.

"I'm concerned about a successful program, not maximizing how many units we have," he said. "A successful program looks into the future."

Alderwoman Jacquie Gist agrees.

She supports accepting payments and would like to see some of the money support another community goal: ending homelessness.

A county coalition is pursuing a housing-first strategy that proposes giving the chronically homeless a permanent place to stay. The theory goes that once people don't have to worry about where they're sleeping, they can better follow up with programs to help them live independently.

The plan will be expensive. Having a dedicated revenue source "is the only way we're going to come up with that much money," Gist said.

Susan Levy, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, said her agency could also benefit from letting developers make cash payments.

"It would be great to have a source of flexible funds," she said. Habitat could use the money to lay infrastructure, buy land for future homes and provide second mortgages.

Carrboro Alderwoman Joal Hall Broun said she wants to move slowly.

If the existing policy is producing too many small condos, the town might need to make developers build different types of affordable housing, she said.

She's also not ready to sign off on Gist's homelessness idea. She hopes to see guidelines for spending affordable housing payments next year.