The politics and policymaking of Chapel Hill are overlooked by many and monopolized by few. The reality is that the very laws that will most impact you and your neighbors, such as zoning regulations, parks and developments, are decided by local government, a process largely removed from the general population. Unfortunately, Chapel Hill has been taken in by a group based in misinformation, improper climate reform and veiled racism.
I’m not talking about the town’s more-than-problematic past, rather the political stranglehold that the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT) has on our home. Under the guise of eco-friendly policy and green-space preservation, they have successfully come to control a majority of the town council, ousting previous mayor Mark Kleimschmidt and county commissioner Mark Marcopolos.
Some may be familiar with CHALT already, and initially I held a favorable view of them. What’s not to like about an alliance of townspeople advocating for a better town? However, while CHALT claims to promote affordable housing and simply wants to stop all those “luxury” highrises (which are necessary to address the housing situation in Chapel Hill), their track record speaks very differently. Rather, they use the promise of affordable housing to gain a moral high ground when blocking attempts for dense, sustainable housing and apartments, then turn around and nitpick the specific affordable housing plans.
Specifically, CHALT has worked against green transportation transit efforts, Kleinschmidt’s vision for walkable communities, and used smear tactics against incumbents marking a dirty shift in Chapel Hill local politics. At a 2015 CHALT forum, Bonnie Hauser led a discussion on transportation, in which it was argued that instead of funding a light rail, which would provide fast, efficient transportation, the town should upgrade its bus system, maintaining a fossil fuel reliant system that is actively detrimental to the environment. Kleinschmidt implemented a planning tool called form-based code, which would streamline development to promote easily walkable communities with the urgency that the climate crisis demands. In doing so, he worked to achieve mixed-use and higher-density projects in his tenure, something CHALT vehemently opposed. Most notably, when it came to Ephesus-Fordham redevelopment (also known as the Blue Hill district, encompassing East Gate, Rams Plaza and Village Plaza), the bold plan included high-density, mixed-income housing that would simultaneously lower housing costs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t qualify as “town betterment” in the Alliance’s eyes. Online trolls and ad hominem attacks also became frequent against Kleinschmidt and his incumbent allies, in part perpetrated by CHALT members, according to Billy Ball of IndyWeek.
Apparently, CHALT’s support of low income housing is strictly limited to the world of hypotheticals, never to truly reach the world of realization. When the Berkshire replaced a parking lot, complaints of the “luxury” high-density housing were frequent, arguing that instead affordable housing deserves our investment. Yet, we know that high-density housing is exactly the kind of climate-friendly development this town needs, and CHALT’s track record on affordable housing is murky at best (see the aforementioned Ephesus-Fordham redevelopment), existing more in rhetoric than action. Their advertised measures consist of a few failed efforts for mixed income housing, the farthest effort being the preservation of the status quo when it comes to affordable housing.
While it may appear counterintuitive, in reality, the best thing cities and towns can do to mitigate and address climate change is to increase population density. In Chapel Hill, many employees simply cannot afford to live in town and have to commute to and from their work every day, contributing to the destruction of our planet. In fact, according to a 2015 American Community survey that the town cites, 55 percent of Chapel Hillians drive for their daily commute, with 41,000 people who commute into Chapel Hill to work and 14,000 who leave the town (according to the U.S. Census), primarily in their fossil fuel dependent vehicles. The solution is twofold, in that affordable housing must be provided so that Chapel Hill employees can afford to live in the very town they work in, and to create planned, efficient and sustainable communities (and workplaces). The town needs to focus on compact housing in communities that are close to people’s place of employment, schools and stores—creating walkable areas that largely remove the need to drive. That’s why dense cities such as New York are actually far more green than most of the world, contrasting sharply with the urban sprawl that CHALT is so keen to protect.
This opposition to density is excused by the Alliance in one of two ways; either the new high rises are unnecessary, ugly and don’t belong in their town, or the preservation of a few dozen trees is overvalued. Unfortunately for the Alliance, these complaints are simply not rooted in reality. The reduced carbon footprint of 100 people living in a walkable community that has essentially eliminated fossil fuel dependent transportation has a far greater net benefit on the environment than a few trees. The path toward a sustainable future is based around increased density and reduced transportation – which come into direct contradiction with CHALT’s mission.
There is another name for organizations such as CHALT: NIMBY, a common label for staunch anti-development groups. The acronym stands for “Not In My Back Yard,” which is the exact attitude CHALT takes to heart. For many Chapel Hillians in the upper middle class, they like their spacious, inefficient neighborhoods, and see no issue in “protecting” them through single-family, R1 zoning. However, they fail to recognize that many of those neighborhoods are segregated, being that class and race are inextricably linked, and by being anti-compact and anti-affordable housing, what the town is actually preventing is lower-class minorities from “ruining” their pristine neighborhoods. What’s more, Chapel Hill is part of one of the fastest growing regions in the country, and there is a serious housing shortage that must be addressed for both the good of the climate and townspeople.
To be absolutely transparent, I am currently a petition signee in action against CHALT and am working with a group of teens who are attending the town meeting this Wednesday (January 27th) to voice their concerns and frustrations with CHALT’s influence on the town’s climate plan. That being said, I encourage everyone reading this to show up at the town meeting to demonstrate to the council that we care about sustainability and will not sacrifice our commitment to addressing climate change for the sake of discrimantion in the name of neighborhood “preservation”.” This effort is largely youth-led, including the petition which emphasizes the importance of addressing climate change through high-density housing, clean transportation and mixed-use developments. It is important to note that while CHALT has played an increasingly large role in Chapel Hill politics and developments, they are not the sole instance of NIMBYism in our town. There is a larger, more pervasive set of damaging views held by the upper class of Chapel Hill, which CHALT has effectively streamlined and organized into a powerful political force.
Photo courtesy of La Citta Vita/Flickr
