Jessica Anderson, candidate for Chapel Hill mayor
Chapel Hill voters will elect a new mayor and four Town Council members this year, potentially charting a different course for the town’s future growth.
Adam Searing and Jessica Anderson, two council members with a history of quarreling over town issues and decisions, are running to replace Mayor Pam Hemminger, who declined to seek a fifth term leading the town.
Anderson’s council seat, along with three other council seats, is on the November ballot.
Council member Amy Ryan is the only incumbent council member seeking re-election. Council members Michael Parker and Tai Huynh declined another run and will leave their seats in December.
Ryan is running alongside nine others — Melissa McCullough, Renuka Soll, David Adams, Elizabeth Sharp, Breckany Eckhardt, Jeffrey Hoagland, Erik Valera, Theodore Nollert and Jon Mitchell.
Adams, Soll, Sharp and Eckhardt are running as a bloc that backs Searing’s vision for the town. Searing, if he loses the mayoral race, would remain on the council until December 2025.
Early voting in the nonpartisan Nov. 7 election starts Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 4..
To find polling places and full details on early voting, visit co.orange.nc.us/1720/Elections or contact the Board of Elections at 919-245-2350 or vote@orangecountync.gov.
Name: Jessica Anderson
Age: 44
Occupation: Professor of the practice, Department of Public Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill
Education: Bachelor of Arts, Northeastern University; Master of Public Policy, Duke University
Political or civic experience: Eight years (two terms) on the Chapel Hill Town Council; two years as Chapel Hill Mayor Pro Tem; chair, Council Committee on Economic Sustainability
Campaign website: jessformayor.org
What do you think the town’s top three priorities should be? Choose one and describe how you will work to address it.
▪ Continue to lead on climate action
▪ Improve transparency and communication
▪ Implement our Complete Community plan
Successful implementation of Complete Community will be critical to realizing the diverse, inclusive and sustainable Chapel Hill that we all want. We recently received a $1 million grant to plan for the 25 miles of additional greenway it’ll take to make this vision a reality. I’ll work to make sure this plan has safe walking and bike paths to schools, jobs, shopping and transit. We’ll also create a natural areas map that preserves ecologically sensitive areas and introduce dashboards to track our progress at creating greenways, diversifying housing stock, and more.
What do you think the town is doing right to create more affordable housing? What would you do if elected?
We’ve exceeded our affordable housing goals with a multi-pronged approach that includes using public land, leveraging federal funds, working with community partners, and engaging the market (negotiating with developers). We’ve also brought UNC to the table by starting an affordable housing revolving loan fund with $5 million from UNC Health and partnering on a study to gain insight into workforce (“middle”) housing needs. We have 1,100 “middle” housing units in the pipeline, and continuing to address this need will provide new options for seniors, young families, single parents and those who make too much to qualify for “HUD-defined” affordable housing. As mayor, I’ll build on this work.
Do you support keeping Orange County’s rural buffer, where the lack of water and sewer limits growth? How do you see the town growing with or without the buffer?
I support keeping the rural buffer. Removing it will lead to sprawl, which is harmful to the environment, since it increases vehicle miles traveled.
Our town data shows that we can grow sustainably by densifying housing in key locations: near greenways; along transit corridors; on large infill sites with existing infrastructure; and on smaller infill sites in existing neighborhoods.
This approach to development is embedded in our Complete Community and North-South Bus Rapid Transit plans. If we implement these plans well, we’ll be able preserve the healthy environment and green gateways we all value — while accommodating current and future growth.
Would you consider a tax increase to pay for rising costs and delayed public projects? If not, what specific changes to the town’s budget would you support?
After years of inflation without a tax increase — including a pause during COVID to provide relief to local businesses and residents — I voted for our recent 5-cent (per $100) tax-rate increase. This will help us pay our employees fairly and finance public projects, including our parks.
As one of 13 municipalities in the state with a AAA bond rating, Chapel Hill is in fantastic financial shape. We leverage debt wisely, and generally hire consultants when it doesn’t make financial sense to add a full-time employee, or for projects where we want “the world’s best” in order to be competitive for federal funding (federal grants cover 80% of a project’s cost, which allows our money to go further).
How can the town bring people together who have different viewpoints to find workable solutions?
During our Complete Community planning, we piloted a new approach to stakeholder engagement. First, we invited representatives with diverse viewpoints — including traditionally underrepresented groups — to serve as community champions. After facing some “hard truths” together, we were ultimately able to agree to some shared goals based on data and clearly articulated trade-offs.
This approach brought everyone to the table to share perspectives and discuss issues with the goals of building consensus where possible and brainstorming on ways to mitigate concerns. While some of the discussions didn’t go as deep as I’d hoped, I think this new approach has promise.
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