We're launching a Chapel Hill for All - and yes, there are yard signs

Hi everyone,

Today we’re proud to launch Chapel Hill For All.

We envision a vibrant, affordable, sustainable, and inclusive Chapel Hill, where people at every stage of life and at all income levels can find a home.

Chapel Hill for All is, like Triangle Blog Blog, part of Shameful Nuisance, our parent organization. Whereas Triangle Blog Blog focuses on the present – it’s a daily civics blog – Chapel Hill for All will focus on our future, and organizing people across Chapel Hill who support candidates and policies that expand equitable access to housing, green space, and economic opportunity in Chapel Hill. (We’re launch Carrboro For All too, soon).

Please visit ChapelHillForAll.com to learn more about how you can support more housing choices, greenways, and other initiatives that will make our community more inclusive and more robust.

And please sign up to get one of the yard signs we’ve made to help show your support for a more welcoming and inclusive town. You can place the on your lawn or in a window.

(No yard? No problem. We have digital yard signs too. Download what you need for Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, Twitch, BeReal, Second Life, YouTube, WeChat, Friendster, Vine, YikYak, Yo!, SnapChat, MySpace, Tumblr, NextDoor (?) or whatever other platform you may be on with others in Chapel Hill.

Here’s a high quality PDF. You can send it to a local sign shop to DIY, and/or hang it in your window.

We also have images for Facebook, Your Story, Instagram, and LinkedIn.)

We deserve a Chapel Hill for All

There is a rich body of scientific literature showing that compact, walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented development is environmentally beneficial—not only because it helps preserve open land, but because it uses existing infrastructure (i.e. water and sewer) and is closer to jobs and transit. A new building with multiple households is more energy efficient than a single, large one-family home on a lot.

We have the opportunity to create a more inclusive community that is diverse and builds upon the university’s vibrant culture, by allowing types of housing that matches the needs of people of different incomes and at various stages in their life. That means duplexes, cottage courts, and other housing types that young families moving into Chapel Hill or seniors downsizing may prefer.

Increased supply of homes, especially missing middle housing, will have a stabilizing effect on both rental and sale prices, which would be good news for households looking for market rate housing. These efforts build upon the town substantial funding of dedicated affordable housing, which continues to provide new opportunities to low-income households who the market does not serve.

What happens if we do nothing?

In most of the town, the Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO), the regulations that determine what landowners can build on their property, allows only single-family detached homes to be built. As our town’s housing continues to age, more of our older homes are being torn down and replaced. If only single-family homes can be built, then only single-family homes will be built, limiting the housing that’s available in Chapel Hill to the largest, most expensive homes. Over time, our housing will continue to get more expensive and more exclusive.

(We have more frequently answered questions in our FAQ.)

We’re fighting back against decades of organized activity to make Chapel Hill less welcoming

We support Chapel Hill’s housing choices proposal, which will allow people to build duplexes and small cottage homes in existing neighborhoods. It’s a small change that might allow a few more families to live here without doing any harm to existing neighborhoods.

We love Chapel Hill and want to share it with others who can benefit from our great schools, neighbors, and quality of life.

Unfortunately, so much of the rhetoric around the proposal has been centered on fear. Fear of students, fear of newcomers, fear of change. As is so often the case, opponents have made a lot more noise than those of us that welcome modest and helpful changes in Chapel Hill.

All the loud negativity has engendered panic that has drowned out the positive and welcoming change that the housing choices proposal will bring.

Enough with the fright. It’s time to build a Chapel Hill that includes everyone — that’s for all of us.

…

One final point: Unlike a group that is putting up signs and spreading fear about these proposed changes, we’re putting our names in support of this campaign. We are area residents who live and work in our community, volunteer, serve on advisory boards, and want to make this town a better place for all. We stand behind these proposals.

Sincerely,

Geoff Green

John Rees

Stephen Whitlow

Melody Kramer

Martin Johnson

for Shameful Nuisance, Inc.

(And many others who support a Chapel Hill for All)