Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson says she is not big on setting New Year’s resolutions for herself – but there is plenty that comes to mind for town government goals and what her aspirations are for this new calendar year.
The Town of Chapel Hill has several ongoing projects and planning initiatives it aims to advance in 2025. For Anderson, progressing those and keeping residents informed is critical. But she told 97.9 The Hill her thinking starts with what can be done to harness people’s passion on the local scale when so much focus will be national this month. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for a second term – foreshadowing more upheaval and unconventional governing from the executive branch – Anderson said she wants to find ways Chapel Hill can help its residents ride out any chaos and get more involved in their community.
“I think [with] local government hanging in there, sticking with our goals, being really open and transparent and communicative with our community, thinking about how we do that, how we engage people… I know a lot of people now more than ever want to be engaged with government at the local level, since that’s where they feel like they can have [an] impact,” the mayor said to 97.9 The Hill. “Finding ways for people to do that, I think, is really important.”
As it does that, though, the town will look to make a critical hire to prevent their own long-term upheaval: a new town manager. Chris Blue, who served in the role first as interim and then as the permanent option across two years, officially retired at the beginning of 2025 and Mary Jane Nirdlinger was elevated from deputy manager to the interim role. But Chapel Hill has partnered with a third-party firm to do a national search to bring in prospects for the permanent job.
“They’re kind of the CEO of the town,” Anderson said about the town manager role. “They direct all the town work, they have a huge amount of influence over the council’s work, and they’re the main vehicle to translate the council’s vision to staff so they can execute it.
“I think it’s an incredibly important job,” the mayor continued. “Especially because we have so many folks who are from across the country, they’re used to different types of local government – and here in North Carolina, the town manager is a really, really important role. So, it’s a big hire for us.”
In the meantime, town staff and the council will continue to work on major planning and conceptual efforts meant to help shape Chapel Hill’s future projects. Revising the town’s land use management ordinance (LUMO) continues to be a top priority, according to Anderson, with the hopes of setting a public hearing in the spring. Updating the 2003 ordinance, which establishes rules and uses for all constructed elements of the town, will help the local government fold in several long-term plans its since passed and better help those come to fruition.
“I’m also really looking forward to working with the community on our town-wide parks master plan and a town-wide stormwater plan,” added Anderson. “Those are really critical to Complete Community [strategies] working and coming together. We’re [also] putting together this kind of tactical urbanism experiment downtown with Lot 2, changing from a surface lot to an urban park – that’s going to be really cool.”
2021 concept designs for town green space on East Rosemary Street. The Innovate Carolina Junction has been finished since 2023 as part of Chapel Hill’s East Rosemary Street redevelopment – and now determining an approach to change the surface parking lot into a green space is next up for the town. (Rendering via Perkins + Will.)
That latter project will be the latest stage of Chapel Hill’s East Rosemary redevelopment effort – made possible by the biggest domino falling this past year, as the seven-story parking deck at 125 East Rosemary Street began operating. Anderson pointed to that, as well as other big projects’ progression in 2024 as setting the town up for success this upcoming year.
“We got our downtown parking deck, we broke ground on [the] Trinity Court public housing development, we signed a new lease for our police station,” the mayor said. “So, a lot of our important goals are happening, and I think all those things you’ll start seeing [more] in 2025 as well.
“And we’re going to see plenty of development applications,” Anderson added, saying outside developers have been hesitant to start projects during a time of higher interest rates. “We did not see a lot in 2024, and I imagine that will pick up again.”
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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