For 40 years, sorority members have shared meeting space in one building - the Panhellenic Building - but in three years, they will share space there no more. In 2007, a set of sorority townhouses on Terrace Avenue will replace the Panhellenic Building, which is located on 16th Street and Cumberland Avenue, Kelley Golden, president of the University's Panhellenic Council, said. Sorority members have run out of space in the Panhellenic Building, Golden said on Monday. "The chapters here are getting really big," Golden added. "The rooms in the Panhellenic Building just can't hold us anymore." When the Panhellenic Building was finished in 1964, sorority chapters had an average of 60 members per chapter, Megan Fields, panhellenic affairs adviser, said. Today, chapters have an average of 138 members. In addition to lack of space, the Panhellenic Building needs renovation. Golden said the ceilings in the building contain asbestos, and the elevator in the building requires users to first go up and down stairs. Fifteen sorority chapters have suites in the Panhellenic Building, and initial plans call for all 15 chapters to have space in the new townhouses. But the space will only be for meetings and not for residential use. Although a rumor has circulated on The University of Tennessee campus that state law prohibits more than five women from living together, Fields said the story is false. Sorority members in the late 1950s chose to live together in dormitories in order to maintain unity. And sorority members are optimistic they can maintain unity in the new townhouses even though they will no longer have one central meeting spot. The new townhouses will be built on the south side of Terrace Avenue east of the Advent House, George Criss, director of facilities planning, said on Friday. All the existing houses in that area, other than the Advent House, will be demolished, he added. Bullock Smith and Partners of Knoxville is just beginning design work for the townhouses, and no definite information is available yet regarding how big the townhouses will be or what they will look like, Criss said. Administrators estimate the townhouses will cost roughly $8.8 million. Funding for the townhouses will initially come from the state school bond authority, and sororities will reimburse the state in a 30-year period, Jeff Maples, assistant vice president for operations, said on Friday. Sororities will repay the bonds through donations and by raising their dues. Dues in Golden's chapter - Pi Beta Phi - have increased by about $50 a semester. Golden said she is excited about the new townhouses, but she will no longer be a UT student when they are completed. "I'm sad I'm not going to be here to see it," Golden said. She will come back and visit the new townhouses as an alumna.