Where do Chapel Hill council candidates stand on zoning, density & town’s future?

Zoning is one of the least understood and possibly most boring tools of local government — at least on the surface — but it’s also one of the most critical tools for a successful community.

In Chapel Hill, about 70% of the land is zoned to allow only single-family homes. That gives the Town Council leverage to negotiate for public benefits from developers who want to build offices, apartments and stores.

The remaining land, which is already zoned for those uses, can be developed “by right,” meaning developers only have to work with town staff and within existing land-use and building rules.

Done right, it results in a community with adequate roads and utilities, that has a shared vision for efficient growth, and that promotes economic development. It can mean higher property values, improved public health and safety, and more green spaces and amenities.

The town of Chapel Hill is revamping its land-use management ordinance, which includes zoning, but also rules for environmental protection, building design and infrastructure.

Chapel Hill voters will have an opportunity on Nov. 4 to elect four people who will make those key decisions, which could affect how the town functions and feels for decades.

The slate of five Town Council candidates features two incumbents — Camille Berry and Paris Miller-Foushee — and three challengers: Wes McMahon, Louie Rivers III and Erik Valera. Mayor Jess Anderson, who is also on the ballot, is unopposed.

Early voting began Oct. 16 in Hillsborough and starts Oct. 23 in Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

Here is what the candidates told The News & Observer they would change about the town’s zoning:

Camille Berry: One thing I would change is something that we’re already working on, and that’s to streamline it, put it there in the code, the parts that we really can evaluate, and be clear about it, be forthright in our expectations, and arm our staff to work with the developers to carry out what we deem is critical, rather than project by project.

I really think that our community would appreciate knowing just what we’re doing, where we are in different projects — something may look unfinished or may look horrible because it’s unfinished — and helping them to understand where we are.

Clarifying the zoning code so [we are] being very clear what the expectations are for different zones, if we want or if it is required to have certain things.

Wes McMahon: As a member of your planning commission, one of the things we’ve been working on for a long time is to get rid of parking minimums. Our code right now requires a developer to put in so many parking spots. Well, those parking spots take up space that could be used to add more housing and, in turn, create more affordable housing with our inclusionary zoning, so saving spots for cars instead of saving spots for homes is a little backwards to me. We need to free up the regulations so that we can focus on getting people into housing and not cars in the parking spots.

Paris Miller-Foushee: When thinking about zoning, I think about our land-use management ordinance, which is comprehensive, and if we are able to do that well, it would really address a lot of the zoning that needs to be done. I want a rewrite that is going to be rooted in housing justice, that mandates affordability, that reflects our needs for diverse housing types, that is transit oriented, environmentally just, climate resilient, and really helps to spur the kind of economic development that we need as a town. So when we’re thinking about zoning, a land-use management ordinance is the key to the type of zoning that we need for a thriving community.

Louie Rivers III: Right now, if you’re building something in our downtown district, there’s some clear processes on how to do that. If you’re building a single-family residence, there’s some clear processes for doing that. But anything else, there’s a lot of involvement with Town Council, and I think we need to develop streamlined processes for development in town that take some of this back-and-forth with council out of our hands.

I think there’s some comfort in knowing that you have this set of people that you elected making sure that a project goes the right way, but that just extends our timelines. So when I talk to people who try to develop in Chapel Hill, it’s expensive, and a lot of that expense comes from our long time lines. It could take years to get something done in Chapel Hill.

All these apartment buildings popping up right now? These are things that have been discussed by a council from 10 years ago, or a council from five or six years ago.

Erik Valera: Since 2021, Chapel Hill has been working on rewriting the land-use management ordinance to also be able to create a zoning code that allows more density closer to transit and greenways. We need density along our transit areas, and we also need to be able to protect our natural areas, so to be able to live closer together, to be able to have a zoning code that allows us to build taller in areas near downtown, near where commerce is along our bus-rapid transit system … We want our zoning code to be able to make it so that our Complete Community framework is encoded and comes to life.

What we would like to see is developments that are connected — ideally to each other, but also connected to the infrastructure that the town already has. … The developers need to also work together to be able to create projects where the infrastructure flows seamlessly into one another.

This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 7:00 AM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.