Council member enters race for Chapel Hill mayor with plan to fix town’s ‘problems’
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The story was updated at 9:32 a.m. June 20, 2023.
Town Council member Adam Searing has launched his bid to unseat Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger, saying the town is heading in the wrong direction on a number of issues.
His “community-first vision for Chapel Hill” includes affordable rental housing and for-sale townhouses — with UNC as a development partner — more visitors, more local businesses, and more green spaces and outdoor recreation, Searing said in his weekly email newsletter.
“We need a Mayor and Town Council that listen to residents — you and me and all our neighbors — instead of consistently ignoring community concerns,” Searing, 56, said. “We need a Chapel Hill that makes our amazing parks, green spaces, and love of the outdoors as valuable to our community as housing development. This shouldn’t be an ‘either/or’!”
The public interest lawyer grew up in Chapel Hill and was elected to the council in 2021 with the support of the citizens group Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town. He is a mountain biking enthusiast and co-founder of the Friends of the Greene Tract, formed to preserve public land south of Eubanks Road.
In 2021, he ran on a platform of preserving the town’s green spaces and expanding its parks, recreation, and hiking and biking trails.
Searing is the first candidate to announce he is running in the mayor’s race. Hemminger, who defeated former council member and CHALT candidate Hongbin Gu to win her fourth term in 2021, has not said whether she will seek re-election in November.
Council members Jessica Anderson, Amy Ryan, Tai Huynh and Michael Parker, whose terms expire in December, also have not announced whether they will run again.
Candidate filing for the 2023 municipal and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board race starts at noon July 7.
Adam Searing on town issues
In his newsletter, Searing recounted working in the Tumbleweed Cyclery bike shop on West Franklin Street as a teenager, where he said he learned about problem solving. In his professional life, he has helped expand health care access through the N.C. Children’s Health Insurance program, the national Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion.
“I came into office with a desire to save some trees, improve our parks, make housing more available to all, and continue to serve my community. But, like in the bike shop, I’ve found lots of pretty big problems that need fixing,” Searing said.
His stances have put him at odds with Hemminger and other council members on many issues, with Searing often casting the lone vote “no.”
The differences also have led to testy exchanges between Searing and Council member Jessica Anderson, in particular, and with Canadian consultant Jennifer Keesmaat, who was hired to help revise the town’s development rules and processes.
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Searing listed multiple issues he wants to address in his newsletter, including:
▪ Housing Choices and affordable housing: Searing has opposed the town’s new Housing Choices plan, which could face a vote Wednesday. It would let property owners build two homes or a duplex on a single-family lot. Townhouses, apartments and other types of dense housing would only be allowed in multifamily zoning districts.
The changes would not affect neighborhoods with homeowners associations or restrictive covenants.
The town needs more affordable housing, townhouses and downtown apartments, Searing said. Data from an Urban Institute study shows the plan would not “make housing more affordable or accessible for middle and lower income community members,” he said.
The Urban Institute article also noted that tighter land-use restrictions and lower-density zoning, such as single-family neighborhoods, “are associated with increased median rents and a reduction in units affordable to middle-income renters.” It suggested cities use a mix of direct subsidies for affordable housing and vouchers, while also loosening restrictions on housing.
Council members and staff have said the single-family zoning changes are needed to add a variety of housing that the town needs, including smaller options that cost less, but the change is not an affordable housing strategy.
Searing said he supports taxpayer-funded affordable housing, but everyone should also live within walking distance of parks and open space. He was the only council member to oppose public housing for a Jay Street site purchase with taxpayer-approved parks bond funding, and also opposed plans for affordable housing on land that will also be a park on Legion Road.
▪ Coal ash dump: Searing opposed plans for apartments, a police station and town offices at the current Chapel Hill Police Department site on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The town built the police station in the 1980s but didn’t find the coal ash until 2013.
Searing claims the council wants to build on the land without removing the coal ash, but the town is still working with the state and hasn’t determined how to resolve the problem. Apartments were removed from the plan last year, but might be possible in the future.
In March, the council voted to plan for the municipal building, a step required under the state’s Brownfields Program for redeveloping the land. The concept plan will help town and state staff members determine how to remove the coal ash and plan for construction.
▪ Town spending and parks: Searing was the lone council member to vote against an 11% property tax rate increase this year — one of the biggest in town history — to pay for maintenance, repairs and big-ticket purchases that have been piling up since 2009.
Searing also cited the town’s “unfulfilled promises” for his budget vote, including a long-awaited adaptive playground and splash pads. He often cites other towns and cities with skate parks, while pointing to Chapel Hill’s run-down and often unsafe skate park. The council voted in May to spend $1 million in federal pandemic relief money on a skate park and inclusive playground equipment.
His announcement also noted the town’s spending on consultants, the additional $9 million to deal with bedrock problems at the East Rosemary Street parking deck site, because of bedrock problems, and the purchase of land for road access to the Greene Tract.
With a little investment, Searing said, the town could capitalize on its green spaces to support local businesses, attract visitors and support neighborhoods. And it doesn’t have to “promote glass skyscrapers built by out-of-town developers at the expense of beloved neighborhood establishments like the Purple Bowl Restaurant,” he said.
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 7:38 AM.
