The directory in question must have write permissions for the Apache process (apache?). Whether this means that the directory is owned by apache, or simply that apache is part of a group with write permissions matters not. But yes, you're going to need root permissions to change the permissions on that directory.

I suggest you do some research on unix file permissions. Basically, files and directories have User, Group, and Other permission bits (Read/Write/eXecute)...

[fuzzy@jason fuzzy]$ ls -l testfile 
-rw-rw-r--    1 fuzzy    fuzzy           0 Jul 17 11:07 testfile
[download]

As you can see, my User and Group sections have both Read and Write permissions turned on. Everyone else that isn't part of these two entities (Other) only has Read permissions. The file is owned by my user (fuzzy) and the respective group (fuzzy). If you want your directory to be writeable by the Apache process, the directory must either be owned by apache with Write permissions turned on, or apache must be a part of the Group entity, with Write permissions turned on.

Hope this helps!

-fp