Editor’s Note: This story has been updated on October 16 with further information about the Center Action Fund’s methodology for its endorsement process in the Chapel Hill municipal elections.
The action fund for the Center for Biological Diversity recently shared its endorsements in the 2023 Chapel Hill municipal races — largely basing them around a single issue and after speaking with select candidates.
The Center Action Fund, which is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the national organization known for its advocacy of wildlife and nature, issued a release on Friday saying it is endorsing candidates based on their stances in ongoing mitigation and redevelopment of the 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard property. The group is supporting Adam Searing in his mayoral campaign, as well as Renuka Soll, David Adams, Elizabeth Sharp and Breckany Eckhardt, based on their campaigns to fully remove coal ash at the site before any sort of development.
“This slate would give Chapel Hill the progressive votes needed to ensure that the coal ash is completely removed and safely disposed of from the police station property before any redevelopment takes place,” Perrin de Jong, the North Carolina political director of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, said in Friday’s release. “The current leadership isn’t working to fully remove this toxic contamination from the community and that failure is putting residents and wildlife at risk.”
De Jong confirmed with Chapelboro that the action fund’s endorsements came not from reaching out to the entire slate of candidates in the Chapel Hill races, but instead based on “leads we were given” about which candidates had stances of entirely removing the coal ash before redevelopment. He said the action fund reached out to those five candidates, confirmed their stances, and that left “no need to speak with any other candidates.”
“We are under no obligation to make contact with any particular candidate, and we do not exist to make any particular candidate feel paid attention to,” de Jong said in an email.
Adam Searing, mayoral candidate in Chapel Hill. (Photo via INDY Week.)
From left to right: Renuka Soll, David Adams, Elizabeth Sharp, and Breckany Eckhardt.
The issue of coal ash at 828 MLK Boulevard, which is the home of Chapel Hill’s police department, picked up steam in recent years as the town government seeks solutions to create a new municipal services station while addressing the coal ash used as infill during the 1960s and 1970s at the site. While the police department has fallen into disrepair, the town halted any progress after discovering the ash in 2013. Some of that coal ash was removed in 2019 during the completion of Bolin Creek Trail, but more remains. As a result, the town voted to enter the Brownfields Program with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, which — when an agreement is reached — will help determine how to move forward with either containing or removing the coal ash.
The Chapel Hill Police Department’s current building at 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is more than 40 years old and is in disrepair. But the presence of coal ash under the soil has complicated redevelopment discussions. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.)
Searing voted against the initial concept plan proposed by the town for the site in 2022, which included the option of housing eventually being on the property once remediated from the ash. Those plans were ultimately scrapped in September of that year, when then-Town Manager Maurice Jones suggested focusing exclusively on the Municipal Services Center due to rising construction costs. The revised memorandum of understanding passed earlier this year and sent to the Department of Environmental Quality does not include housing in the town’s proposal for the site.
In its endorsement release, the Center Action Fund shared the hazards coal ash can present to both humans and the environment’s health — citing how Bolin Creek drains to Jordan Lake and is part of a watershed home to a freshwater mussel listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (the Atlantic pigtoe). The organization also listed Searing, Adams, Soll, Eckhart, and Sharp’s stances against developing any of the town-owned Legion Road property as additional reasonings for its support. No acute environmental impact was listed for that element of the endorsements.
The Town of Chapel Hill is continuing to work with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Equality to draft an agreement for the Brownfields Program, with town staff recently saying any draft agreement will be made public with a 30-day comment period before a council vote. Meanwhile, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved for the police department to lease space off Fordham Boulevard in September to provide a temporary home for police operations — and to give the local government more time to determine a plan for 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. More about the project can be found on the town’s website.
Early voting begins next week for Orange County’s 2023 municipal elections, as the county’s first of five early voting sites will open on Thursday, October 19. The early voting period will run through November 4, and residents will then have Election Day on Tuesday, November 7 as their final opportunity to cast their votes.
For a full list of races Chapelboro is covering this 2023 local election cycle, click here. Additional coverage throughout election season can be found on the Chapelboro Local Elections page.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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I’m surprised the candidates have not rejected this endorsement from a dark money 501(c)(4) organization that pledges to keep its donors’ identities private. (https://centeractionfund.org/privacy-policy/ — “Donors may also notify us if they prefer that all or some of their contributions be made anonymously and not publicly recognized.”)
Congratulations. Thank you for speaking truth to power and understanding that committment to environmental justice means means protecting the poor and POC from harmful environments.
My campaign does not accept donations from developers or from PACs whether (c)(4)s or not. This is plainly stated on my website and in my public comments. I did not seek this endorsement; I simply filled out a questionnaire, among many, that asked for my views on issues. As with the others, I don’t control their endorsements. I do support removing all the coal ash from 828 MLK and have been transparent about my view. In contrast, TriangleBlogBlog, a (c)(4), finally acknowledged that they accept money from developers, and their connected organization, NEXT [also a (c)(4)], has endorsed Anderson, Mitchell, Valera, Nollert, and McCollough – who is on the NEXT board. No rejection from them. Mr. Green is also a member of NEXT, posts on TBB, and joins three other NEXT members who sit on the Planning Commission.
Three cheers for Adam Searing and David Adams, Renuka Soll, Breckany Eckhardt, and Elizabeth Sharp for championing good sense about safety for people and the environment, and for all of their collective wisdom about humans needing green space in the form of parks to lead healthy lives, renew mental equilibrium, and feel their role in our whole ecosystem. I’m pleased that their attitudes have been noticed and endorsed!
Above, David Adams says ” I did not seek this endorsement; I simply filled out a questionnaire, among many, that asked for my views on issues. As with the others, I don’t control their endorsements.”
Only problem? The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund didn’t send questionnaires to all of the candidates running. The questionnaires were only sent to those on Searing’s slate. We checked with all of the other candidates — none received this questionnaire.
Typically, organizations assess all candidates using the same inputs.