NC elected officials must live where they serve. Chapel Hill leader faces questions.
A Chapel Hill council member’s living situation has raised questions about whether she can continue to serve until her term ends in December.
Karen Stegman announced earlier this month that she would not run for a third, four-year term on the Chapel Hill Town Council. Her family also put their home on the market in anticipation of a permanent move to Carrboro.
The News & Observer got an anonymous tip this week about the pending move and questions about whether it violates a state law requiring elected officials to live in the town or district that they represent.
Stegman, a Chapel Hill native, was first elected in 2017 and faced a bitter re-election campaign in 2021, when anonymous emails and signs accused her of betraying the town by backing the Aura development at Estes Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Fellow elected officials called out the anti-Stegman campaign on social media as “a shocking new low” for local politics.
On May 12, Stegman announced she is leaving the council and cited several accomplishments during her tenure, from building and preserving affordable housing to protecting LGBTQ+ rights, and acting to stem climate change and systemic racism in policing.
“I got a lot of really nice messages from community members thanking me for my eight years — some regret that I wasn’t running again, but very supportive,” Stegman said Tuesday.
The sometimes ugly side of local elections “wasn’t the primary reason” for her decision, she said, but “Chapel Hill residents are not always kind to their electeds, and it does take a toll on every one of them.”
Splitting her time between houses
Orange County land records show Stegman and her wife, Orange County Superior Court Judge Alyson Grine, bought a house near downtown Carrboro in July 2024. They replaced it with a new, bigger house last year and leased it to a tenant, because they weren’t sure what would happen with the unpredictable economy, she said.
This spring, the couple decided to test the waters and put their 2,857-square-foot, four-bedroom home in Chapel Hill’s Booker Creek neighborhood on the market.
The $750,000 asking price attracted a potential buyer in about two weeks. They are still waiting for the deal to close, Stegman said.
For now, she is living half of the time in Chapel Hill, and the rest of the time in Carrboro, she said. She consulted with the town attorney about the housing situation, but they haven’t talked about what might happen if the sale goes through, she said.
“It is not an ideal situation. This is the plan [moving to Carrboro] we were going to implement after the end of my term, but circumstances changed. I really want to see my term through and take my commitment to that role really seriously,” Stegman said.
State law outlines requirements
State law is vague, but generally supports Stegman’s position. As N.C. Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon said, “the answer is always going to rely on the facts of the situation and the intent of the individual in question.”
He pointed to a UNC School of Government blog post that said someone is eligible to run for elected office in a town or jurisdiction in which they are also qualified to vote.
A 1979 N.C. Supreme Court ruling further defined “residency,” saying a person changes their residence only when they abandon their former home with the intent of settling permanently in a new home. Stegman can spend time and even sleep in Carrboro, but her intent must be to return to the Chapel Hill home at least part time.
Challenging someone’s right to serve in elected office starts first with challenging their right to vote through evidence and sometimes witnesses at a local Board of Elections hearing, the post said. The elected official can choose to step down if the board cancels their voter registration, or the jurisdiction’s governing board can declare their seat vacant and fill it with a new member.
Why is Karen Stegman moving to Carrboro?
Stegman has lived in Carrboro before, and said this move is the best decision for her family.
“I don’t think of [the towns] as that different, which I know might upset some Carrboro leaders,” Stegman said. “Chapel Hill-Carrboro is one big, happy family to me.”
But don’t look for her to get involved in Carrboro politics any time soon, she said.
“Anything I do next will not involve being on a ballot,” Stegman said. “I look forward to maybe some more direct service; less sitting in meetings.”
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM.
