Full name: Paris Miller-Foushee
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: https://www.paris-millerfoushee.com
1) In 300 words or less, please give our readers your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What prior experience will make you an effective member of the Chapel Hill town council?
I’m running to ensure that Chapel Hill becomes an affordable place for families of all backgrounds to live, work, and play without having to get in a car. I’ve served one term, and in the past four years, I’ve executed amendments to our zoning policy to increase the diversity of housing types and increase our community’s affordability. I’ve pushed a framework for building communities complete with housing and amenities along our transit corridors. I’ve preserved and expanded our public safety program to ensure that we can support our community members experiencing crises with modern, non-violent methods.
I am a proven member of the Chapel Hill Town Council who has voted to build a sustainable and affordable town for all. I have been deeply effective in building the public-private partnerships necessary for our community to thrive, and I will continue to: partner with the University to retain emerging businesses, invest in our downtown, bolster our transit systems to mitigate car emissions, execute our vision for Complete Communities, and ensure that Chapel Hill grows in an equitable and creative way.
As the candidate who has both voted to amend our housing regulations to increase gentle density AND pass our budget so that our staff can make reasonable salaries and that we can fund recovery efforts after storms like Chantal, I am committed to doing the difficult work of progressing as a community while increasing our resilience to meet our current moment of federal funding shortages and increasing frequency of weather events.
2) What would your priorities be as a member of the Chapel Hill town council? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Chapel Hill currently faces and how you believe the town should address them.
Affordable communities, climate resilience, and community engagement.
During my first four years on Council, we built a framework for innovating the way we will develop Chapel Hill. This framework, Complete Communities, allows us to develop walkable communities that are complete with affordable housing, recreational amenities, commercial retail along transit corridors. The Town should continue to execute Complete Communities by ensuring that we are planning for families of all income levels and backgrounds to be able to live, work, and play in our community without having to rely on a car. If elected for another four year term, I will continue to identify sites to pilot and execute creative and inclusive developments.
This brings me to my second priority. As we continue to prioritize affordable, multi-purpose developments, we must prioritize climate resilience. As flood events become more common, we need to ensure that our development is dense to minimize sprawling impervious surface area. We need to require developers to minimize negative externalities by eliminating surface parking, incursions into wooded, natural areas, invest in multi-use bike/pedestrian paths, and to build along transit corridors to minimize car dependence. We also need to continue to fund our climate resilience by putting aside dedicated funds to rebuild after storm or weather events. As federal resources get constrained, we need to invest in our own climate resilience through dollars, thoughtful planning, and developer mitigation of negative externalities.
My third priority is reimagining community engagement in our community. As a resident of the historically sidelined Black neighborhood of Northside, I know what it’s like to be disenfranchised from local government and town operations. For too long, Chapel Hill has relied on outdated forms of community engagement through boards and commissions. These boards excluded our town’s most vulnerable residents. For example, renters used to be prohibited from joining our Town’s stormwater board even though 52% of the town comprises renters. That was not inclusive. I have acted to make our community engagement more inclusive for our most vulnerable residents. And, I will continue to prioritize creating focused initiative-specific task forces and ambassador programs that include residents of all backgrounds, income levels, and experiences and operate to meet their needs so that we engage our community equitably.
Affordable complete communities, climate resilience, and equitable engagement are my three priorities for my second term.
3) What’s the best or most important thing the Chapel Hill Town Council has done in the past year? Additionally, name a decision you believe the town should have handled differently. Please explain your answers.
The most important thing that our Council has done in the past year was passing our $44 million municipal bond that includes $15 million for affordable housing, $15 million for public facilities, $7.5 million for streets and sidewalks, $4.5 million parks and recreation, and $2 million for open space greenways. This is a sweeping investment in our Town’s priorities to secure complete, affordable, and walkable communities for all of our residents.
A decision the Town could’ve handled differently is our handling of the Booker Creek Stormwater Mitigation infrastructure. While the recommendations made to us by the public were good, they didn’t address the full needs of the infrastructure necessary to protect our neighborhoods along the Creek. We need to listen to our expert engineers to ensure that our dams, stormwater infrastructure, and proper mitigation efforts protect our homes and businesses.
4) President Trump is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas. At the same time, the state legislature has passed laws requiring agencies to cooperate with ICE. What do you think Chapel Hill can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?
When law enforcement agencies are constrained by reigning anti-immigrant legislation, our supportive services have to step up. Over the past four years, we’ve invested heavily in ensuring that our law enforcement agencies can provide wraparound services to our most vulnerable communities. Chapel Hill PD should continue to uphold the law, which protects our community members, regardless of immigration status. And, we should ensure that we can provide the supportive services (housing, crisis counseling, representation) to those in our community at risk of deportation to mitigate this emerging lawlessness at the federal and state levels.
We need to continue working with our schools to ensure that we have interpreters and translators who can continue to serve our non-English speaking community, especially when they are the most vulnerable.
5) Faced with federal funding cuts, rising costs, and a revaluation that saw home values skyrocket, the town council (in a 5-4 vote) approved a $164 million budget funded by the fifth tax increase in as many years. For current council members, please explain how you voted and why. For non-incumbents, please explain how you would have voted and why.
I voted to approve the budget. The budget process starts early, includes countless working sessions, public meetings, and negotiations. Budgeting is a complex system. It requires balancing the needs of the community, our values, and the needs of our future–especially in our constrained federal environment.
For too long, previous councils had put off increasing our revenue base to accommodate the increasing responsibilities of local government to step in where our federal government is falling short. We are still recovering from the pandemic as a community. The commercial impacts and increasing need for services put us in a tough spot, and we had to make tougher choices. This budget reflects exactly what we need to make up for decades of not keeping up with our needs as a community.
I voted to approve our budget so that our staff who work tirelessly to keep our community thriving are paid accordingly. I voted to approve our budget so that we could fund rebuilding efforts after weather events, especially when federal emergency mitigation funding is being cut. I voted to approve our budget so that we can preserve the essential services that support our public housing, our marginalized communities, and our unhoused population.
I also recognize the need for us to diversify our tax base by attracting more commercial taxpayers to relieve the burden on our renters and homeowners. That is why complete communities and commercial integration into our developments is one of my main priorities.
6) The town has prioritized climate action and climate resiliency, but the catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal shows that the town and its residents continue to be vulnerable to these disasters. How can Chapel Hill best help impacted residents and prepare for future disasters? How should the council deal with the coal ash at the police station, which has been impacted by separate flood incidents?
The Town needs to continue investing in infrastructure and technology to mitigate the impacts of increasingly frequent weather events. The most recent budget that the Council adopted reflects our commitment to fund rebuilding efforts after emergency weather events like in the event of Tropical Storm Chantal. We need to prioritize streamlined permitting during rebuilding efforts to cut post-emergency costs for our residents. We need to ensure that our public housing is updated to be climate-resilient so that our public housing residents can stay in their homes during and after storms like Chantal.
We also need to prioritize our Land Use Management Ordinance to ensure that we’re setting up future development in areas that we know will not suffer outsized damage during flood events.
The coal ash site has been impacted by flood incidents, and there are measures we can take to mitigate outsized flood impacts in the future. The NC Department Environmental Quality and countless studies have proven to our community that the coal ash site, with proper mitigations, can be a viable plot for our Town to develop housing and amenities safely. The proper path forward is to do proper brownfield remediation, layer remedial dirt to contain the site and runoff, and build a retaining wall to mitigate runoff. The brownfield program has the strictest environmental control measures in place, so if we were to participate in that program, we would have to comply with those regulations that are designed to keep our community safe. The experts have proven that we can mitigate the negative externalities of the coal ash and also leverage it to accomplish our affordability priorities.
7) As with most places in the Triangle, Chapel Hill is grappling with a shortage of affordable housing. How should the town address housing affordability over the next few years?
During my first four years on Council, we have approved over 1500 affordable homes, have expedited the approval process for affordable developments, and have signed an agreement between the Town of Chapel Hill, UNC Health, and Self-Help Credit Union to establish an affordable housing loan fund for our essential workers.
Over the next few years, the Town should prioritize developing complete and affordable communities on Town-owned land to increase affordability. The Town should increase gentle density closer to our downtown to increase affordability through smarter land-use. And, we should continue to invest in private partnerships so that our employers are investing in affordable homes for their essential employees so that they can live where they work instead of having to commute in.
7) Last year, the council voted to eliminate several advisory boards and commissions. How can the town best improve its community engagement process, especially to reach residents who do not have the time or resources to attend town council meetings on weekday nights?
Historically, Town Boards and Commissions were not accessible to the community, and councils over-relied on their recommendations to make important decisions citing “community input.” Restricting community input to people who have the privilege of devoting countless hours to a board is not fair. Boards were too time-intensive, requiring multiple hours-long meetings a month, and additional reading/preparation ahead of meetings. This structure was simply not accessible to our working families.
Second, as a Town, we had previously invested significantly in the building and maintenance of these boards. Staff recently estimated that boards cost the Town $10,000 per month to resource and staff them. During a time when budgets are getting tighter and our mandate to provide services is increasing, we need to critically assess where our resources are going and ensure equity in all of our activities.
More importantly, there are betters ways to engage our community on key initiatives:
Before I was elected to Council, I served on the Town’s Reimagining Community Safety Taskforce (RiSC) that convened to discuss how the Chapel Hill Police Department could examine its processes and practices in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. This taskforce was a key example of an effective community engagement method because it comprised people from all walks of life in our community. Representation was a priority when devising this taskforce–we had members from the refugee population, people from my neighborhood who had never participated in a Town effort, working moms, etc. engaged in our discussions and in crafting our recommendations. One of our major recommendations was adopted by the Council, and has helped our Police Department field over 1,000 non-emergency calls to provide crisis counseling and non-violent supportive services to those members experiencing crisis. That same program is being expanded to Carrboro. Serving on that taskforce was such a meaningful experience for me, and it allowed me to participate in my community on a focused initiative without spending countless hours that I didn’t have as a working mom. I know my fellow taskforce members felt the same way.
Another key example of effective community engagement is our Planning Ambassadors Program that invites people from all backgrounds to learn about our Town’s planning process and provide input on our Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance rewrite.
We need to prioritize initiative-specific taskforces and be deliberate about who we invite to the table so that we can be inclusive and representative.
8) The Orange County commission is responsible for levying taxes to fund Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS). That said, what role (if any), should the town council play in supporting CHCCS given the school district’s ongoing budget issues and threatened federal grant cuts?
The federal funding cuts are constraining all levels of government, and it truly is a challenge. The best way forward in this tough political environment is collaboration. We need stronger collaboration between the schools, the County, and our Towns to maximize resources, ensure that no one is left out, ensure that there’s no duplication of services to save money where it is applicable, and promote the shared use of space and access to Town summer programs for our pupils.
9) UNC is a major employer and landholder in Chapel Hill. How would you rate the relationship between the university and the town? What would you like to see change?
The University and Town are in a symbiotic relationship, and the recent intrusion of the state legislation into University and Town-Gown matters are unfortunate and harmful to the mutual growth of both jurisdictions. The relationship between the University and the Town could be improved in the following ways. First, the Carolina North development is a critical opportunity to accelerate shared goals around scholarship, community, vibrancy, connectivity, and to extend the energy of the university beyond the current campus. It is important to incorporate the Town’s goals for transit and connectivity, green space and recreation, and include the full Chapel Hill community in the design and planning.
Housing is also a critical point for collaboration. As more UNC students live off-campus, the town’s affordable housing stock is decreased. The Town and UNC need to work more closely together to expand housing for its student body, early career professors, and for low and moderate income employees that keep campus functioning. UNC needs to step up and provide leadership in solving our growing affordability crisis.
Last, UNC’s collaboration with the County on establishing a Day Center for our unsheltered community is a shining example of how we can address system challenges for our most vulnerable populations through productive university-government relationships.
I would like to see UNC leverage its relationship with their trustees and the state legislature to educate them on the need for more behavioral and medical health services and the need for more affordable housing rather than bolster their efforts to further criminalize poverty.
10) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
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