The race for Chapel Hill Town Council now has ten declared candidates, as incumbent Council member Amy Ryan filed to run for reelection on Wednesday.

Ryan was first elected to the Town Council in 2019, after nearly two decades of service on various boards and commissions — most notably an eight-year stint on the town’s Planning Commission, including two years as chair. Recently, Ryan has been a champion for the town’s “Complete Community” development initiative, but voted last month against an update to allow more housing density in existing neighborhoods, saying she supported the update in principle but worried it would prioritize student-only housing as it was written. Outside of her town service, Ryan is also a writer and book editor with a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the NC State College of Design.

Read more about Amy Ryan here.

Ryan is the only incumbent Town Council member who’s running for reelection in 2023. There are four seats on the ballot this fall, but fellow incumbents Michael Parker and Tai Huynh are stepping down, and Jessica Anderson is leaving her Council seat to run for mayor.

Even with only one incumbent running, the race for Chapel Hill Town Council is a crowded one this year, with ten declared candidates — more than any previous Town Council election in at least the last 15 years. As of Thursday morning, David Adams, Breckany Eckhardt, Jeffrey Hoagland, Theodore Nollert, Elizabeth Sharp, Renuka Soll, and Erik Valera had filed to run; Melissa McCullough and Michael Beauregard have also declared their intention to file.

The filing period closes at noon on Friday, July 21. Click here to see who has filed so far – and what you need to know if you want to run for office.

 

Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.

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