I flat out enjoy canvassing. When else can I knock on a stranger’s door and start a conversation? 
After weeks of traipsing through neighborhoods all over town, I feel confident about giving directions to any Amazon Prime driver.
Regardless of what part of town I’m in, someone on whose door I’ve knocked will ask me, “What’s with all those ugly apartment buildings on Fordham?”
Those voters are referring to the the massive luxury apartment buildings — most of them still under construction — in the area known as Blue Hill, near the intersection of Fordham Boulevard and Ephesus Church Road. The Town Council in 2014, the year before I was elected, approved a form-based code to spur development. As long as the developer met a checklist of requirements, the town manager had to approve the proposal. The project would never come before council for ways to make it better.
The council at the time consciously declined to include any expectation for affordable housing, Blue Hill became a magnet for luxury apartments because it was the only place in town where developers could build without having to contribute anything toward housing for the modestly paid.
Within a matter of months, outraged voters ushered out three of the four incumbents up for election. (One seat was already vacant due to the resignation of an incumbent to take a job overseas.) I was one of the four newbies voted in.
When I explain all this, the next question I hear is, “Why haven’t you fixed it yet?”
State law makes it very tricky to retrofit a form-based code to include a requirement for affordable housing when the legislature says we can’t impose any requirement that limits the profit landowners can make on their property.
We have made some changes to keep more of the same from being built. We’ve included a requirement for a minimum of 10% of the square footage to be commercial space. The original concept for Blue Hill envisioned significantly more commercial development, which rakes in tax revenue for the town, and our changes are a step toward that end.
The changes we’ve made have been hard won in a council that has different visions for what Chapel Hill should look like in the future. In this current election, with four of us incumbents (the fifth incumbent opted not to run again) wanting to retain our seats and five challengers wanting us out, we could see those hard-won gains wiped away. Please make time to educate yourself on each candidate’s vision for Chapel Hill.
I stand on my record of thoughtful growth for a balanced town that makes room for people who work here to live here. I’m asking for your vote to put my experience to work for you for four more years on council.
— Nancy Oates
