With less than a week until Election Day, The Daily Tar Heel spoke with the Chapel Hill Town Council candidates to discuss major issues facing the council. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Greene emailed her comments to The Daily Tar Heel.
Candidate name: Sally Greene
Age: 57
Daily Tar Heel: What is the biggest challenge facing the town?
Greene: We face many challenges as we go forward to implement Chapel Hill 2020, the community’s new comprehensive plan. Making good on the strong progressive vision outlined in that plan is going to be our biggest challenge for the next several years. Affordable housing remains an urgent issue. Being able to accommodate the pressures of change and growth responsibly while not leaving folks behind is a formidable challenge.
DTH: You’ve tried to improve the affordable housing situation in Chapel Hill ever since you were first elected to the Town Council. How do you feel about the town’s recent inclination to approve high density luxury housing?
Greene: The new density reflects a decade of planning for a more successful downtown core. The larger context is the constraint imposed by the urban services boundary. Leaders years ago wisely limited the geographic scope of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, to protect the rural areas. Growth now takes place via redevelopment and infill development. In a location as desirable as downtown, market forces drive prices up. That’s beneficial for the overall economy.
For affordable housing, it means the Council has to be more deliberate in directing policy and resources. And so we worked to secure 15 permanently affordable units in Greenbridge and 18 in 140 West. Since those negotiated development proposals, the Town has adopted a formal inclusionary housing ordinance that leaves such results more certain, less dependent on negotiation. This ordinance was a goal of my first campaign for Council.
