With at least two seats open, the Chapel Hill Town Council is expected to draw several candidates during this local election cycle.
As of Friday, that now includes Breckany Eckhardt: a software trainer and project manager who filed to run for her first elected office.
Photo via Eric Lai / Breckany Eckhardt.
In an email with Chapelboro, Eckhardt said she moved to Chapel Hill in 2017 after buying her first house. She began attending town council meetings in recent months after seeing what she described as “recent, rapid changes” to the area, including the construction of luxury apartments and closure of small businesses. Eckhardt said her concerns grew after learning of the town’s spending plans and decisions to raise tax rates, drain the pond off Legion Road, and explore redeveloping 828 Martin Luther King Jr. with coal ash present on the property.
“I spoke up, but many community members and I felt ignored by the council (except for Adam Searing),” she wrote, “so it was time to run for a seat on the town council.”
Eckhardt said her experience working in more than two dozen healthcare systems as a software trainer has helped her become adaptive to change and said a recent battle with breast cancer “crystallized the importance of community relationships and making the most of the time we have.” She listed several goals for the town, including promoting environmentally sustainable development, park preservation, alternative transit infrastructure, and mixed-use housing.
“We do not need to exchange quantity for quality,” said Eckhardt. “Community-centered construction, efficient infrastructure and transit, public engagement, and data-driven decision-making are not pipe dreams. I am pro-planned growth, pro-parks and greenways, pro-environmental justice, pro-equity, pro-ethical and environmentally responsible developers, pro-small and local business, but most of all for proactive planning and community engagement.”
On Friday, Eckhardt was the first of two candidates to file for the Chapel Hill Town Council race, which will see four seats on the ballot. The other was Jeffrey Hoagland, a technician who ran for council in 2021 and fell short of being elected. Chapelboro has reached out to Hoagland for confirmation of his campaign.
Beyond those two challenger candidates, three others have confirmed their intentions to file: Melissa McCullough, Michael Beauregard, and Elizabeth Sharp. The group will be vying for seats from the departing Michael Parker and Tai Huynh, while council members Jessica Anderson and Amy Ryan will also see their terms end. Neither Anderson or Ryan have yet to announce any campaign plans for the fall.
Full coverage of the 2023 local election filing period can be found here. The filing window officially closes on Friday, July 21.
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