Platform

Housing

Carrboro can build housing better.

Land Use is an area where the Town has the most ability to make change. Town-level planning and zoning has a huge impact on where we can live, how much our rent or mortgage is, and what our neighborhoods look like. I believe that everyone should be able to find an affordable place to live in Carrboro.

To get there, we need to make some changes:

Why don’t home builders build affordable housing? Most would be happy to if our regulatory framework allowed them to. In all of our residential districts, the allowed lot sizes, dimensional requirements, and review processes make it much simpler to build single family homes, including very large and expensive ones. We must make it easier to build duplexes, triplexes, apartments, live-work buildings, and other styles of housing that are cheaper and denser.

Our shared values support affordability, sustainability, and diversity, but our ordinance pushes development in the opposite direction. If we don’t make a change, we will keep getting more of the same – more expensive homes, a less dynamic community, a town not doing its part to reduce climate change, a Carrboro that just gets wealthier because no one else can afford to live here.

It’s time to build what we say we want to build: A Carrboro that welcomes everyone. A vibrant town where we take care of one another.

Equity

For folks with low incomes, the housing market is broken. The Town should keep contributing to local funds for emergency rent assistance, property tax relief, and repair assistance, and should build truly affordable rental units and supportive housing on town-owned land and in collaboration with other landowners and nonprofits.

We must listen to our neighbors.

Davie Road, Barnes Street, James Street, Rogers/Eubanks Road and other neighborhoods have experienced decades without much representation. We need to listen to them on the topics they care about, including flooding, traffic calming, expansion of affordable housing, and other investments in community.

Climate Resilience

Carrboro is going to suffer from increased heat and even heavier rain in the near future. While we keep working to reduce our carbon footprint, we also need to be building our resilience now to protect residents from these effects.

We have accurate maps showing the areas of town that are most likely to suffer flooding. But most of this floodwater arrives as runoff from other properties, especially older ones built before we required modern stormwater infrastructure. We have dedicated funding to make proactive improvements through Carrboro’s stormwater utility. We just need to spend it wisely.

In a warming world, protection from the direct heat of the sun is more important than ever. Shade saves money, reduces carbon emission, and protects our health and comfort. We have many tools we can use to create shade for buildings, roads, sidewalks and outdoor public spaces, including trees, canopies, window shades, and even solar panels.

Carrboro wants to be a walkable, bikeable town.

The Carrboro Connects plan calls for more bikepaths and sidewalks to provide a healthier and more pleasant town. Creating protected bikeways on new and existing streets would increase safety and usability of bike transportation. Reducing car traffic and increasing foot and bike traffic fit into a vision of Carrboro as a higher density community that is accessible to everyone. We should also continue to encourage Chapel Hill Transit to transition to electric buses and add more frequent service at times when people are going to work.

My values:

Care for people – a good community is loving and welcoming to all of its members. We should devote the most effort to supporting those who are struggling.
People make processes – we have rules and process to guide us, but every bit of it is made up by people. If a process is harming people, we should change it.
Disagree well – the most important topics are the ones we disagree on. We should always be civil and honest with one another, but not every vote needs to be unanimous.