Sierra Club endorses the incumbents in Chapel Hill, plus Michael Parker

Here’s a key, late-breaking endorsement from last week in Chapel Hill’s oh-so-contested race for the Town Council and the mayor’s spot.

The Sierra Club of N.C. is siding mostly with the incumbents—Lee Storrow, Donna Bell and Jim Ward—in addition to town Planning Commission member Michael Parker, in the race for four seats on the Town Council.

Meanwhile, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt also picked up the group’s endorsement in this fall’s race against former county commissioner and school board member Pam Hemminger. The Indy‘s endorsements will be released this Wednesday, one day before one-stop and early voting begins.

According to the group’s release, they were supporting proponents of “smart growth.” I know a few folks who might disagree with that characterization. Last month, the PAC Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town, which has cast many of the incumbents on the council as developer-catering leaders who do not listen to their constituents, picked an entirely different slate of candidates.

CHALT’s endorsements came in for Hemminger for mayor. For Town Council, they picked Nancy Oates, Jessica Anderson and David Schwartz, co-founder of CHALT.