David Adams, candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council

Chapel Hill will elect a new mayor and four Town Council members this year, giving voters a chance to check or continue the town’s current management and growth.

Council member Amy Ryan is the only incumbent seeking re-election. Council members Michael Parker and Tai Huynh will vacate their seats in December.

Council member Jessica Anderson’s seat is also open, as she runs against Council member Adam Searing to replace outgoing Mayor Pam Hemminger. Searing is supported by a bloc of four council candidates who have pledged to reverse some town decisions about housing and development.

Searing will remain on the council until December 2025 if he loses the mayoral race.

The Searing-aligned candidates — David Adams, Renuka Soll, Elizabeth Sharp and Breckany Eckhardt — are competing against Ryan and five others — Melissa McCullough, Jeffrey Hoagland, Erik Valera, Theodore Nollert and Jon Mitchell — to fill four council seats.

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: David Adams

Age: 73

Occupation: Adjunct associate professor of medicine, Duke University; former director, Drug Discovery and Development Laboratory, Duke Cancer Center

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and English, University of Iowa; PhD in biochemistry, University of Nebraska

Political or civic experience: I have lived in Chapel Hill for 39 years. I am a cancer researcher, a public school science adviser, a coach for youth sports, an active environmentalist and conservationist. I am engaged in town governance. I speak often before council and have recently presented two petitions with a thousand signatures each. I have expressed my views on town policy in local media and have been an advocate for civility in town politics.

Campaign website: davidadams4council.com

What do you think the town’s top three priorities should be? Choose one and describe how you will work to address it.

▪ Invest in our parks, greenways and green space to mitigate climate change

▪ Promote governance that listens, respects and responds to citizens and enacts fiscally responsible budgets to minimize tax increases.

▪ Enact policy for sustainable, fair development that provides community benefits: The development we actually see and the thousands of units in the pipeline ARE our housing policy, which is dominated by market-rate apartments. Very little affordable or “missing middle” housing will be produced by rezoning single-family neighborhoods. Developers should build what we need, UNC should provide housing for their students and employees, and the town should approve St. Paul Village.

What do you think the town is doing right to create more affordable housing? What would you do if elected?

The town is partnering with nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and Empowerment Inc. on affordable housing. The council is also supportive of St. Paul Village, and I agree. If elected, I will use conditional zoning to get the housing we need. I would deny upzoning to applicants who don’t provide community benefits.

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 to prevent sprawl and to protect our watershed. A similar proposal by the Chamber was opposed by the public and not acted on by the council two years ago and should not be fast-tracked this time. For greatest impact, put density with missing middle and affordable housing in new developments (Planning Department Key Takeaway #1, May 17, 2023). The key will still be the university as it owns 30% of the developable land in town.

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?

The town has already approved a 10% tax increase for next year and likely for the next few years. I can accept tax increases if the money is well spent, e.g., on our $60 million in needed core services. We can trim spending $2 million to $3 million a year on consultants and on giveaways to developers like the Hartley Apts access road. You can’t be bold when you carry $136 million in debt.

How can the town bring people together who have different viewpoints to find workable solutions?

I favor town halls where citizens can interact with the council and with each other. We often have similar goals (housing), but disagree on the best actions. We can find common ground, and I will actively seek it. The media also has an important role to play by not amplifying divisive voices, such as using political attack blogs as legitimate news sources. They should also clearly state when developers or other interest groups are major sponsors.

The Orange Report

Calling Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough readers. Check out The Orange Report, a free weekly digest of some of the top stories for and about Orange County published in The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. Get your newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday featuring stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Orange-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "Chapel Hill Carrboro Chat."