City Council Elections - Oct/Nov 2025

The Mayor's seat and three other council members are up for re-election. These are the "Ward" seats where candidates compete within the ward they will represent.  However, the whole city votes to elect one per ward. 

INC had a long standing tradition to hold candidate forums in the past. We are reviving that tradition this year. To help reduce the burden of forums on the candidates with lots of organizations, we are looking to partner with several organizations in Durham to hold a Candidate forum before the Primary on October 7th. The lead organizations are INC, the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit (CAHT), and Bike Durham. Also collaborating are El Centro, Sonos Durham, and Aging Well Durham.

For more information, please see the details page. 

Simplifying Code for Affordable Development

In 2022, a local developer submitted a privately-initialized set of Text Amendments to be evaluated and adopted to the Durham Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) which regulates building standards. The stated intention of this initiative was to make it easier for developers/builders to create affordable housing.

INC created a committee to study this proposal. The committee produced a report about the content and the letter of introduction to Mayor O'Neal and City Council. 

Expanding Housing Choices

In 2019, the Durham City-County Planning Department initiated a set of text amendments intending to create more housing in the Urban Tier. The net impact was to make every property (approximately 30,000 lots) in this area to convert from single family to multi-family lots. With Text Amendments, it is not necessary to notify land owners of these changes. Many people in Durham never heard about this action until their next door neighbor sold their little and a builder was building multiple homes on the same lot.

For more information, visit the Planning Department documents.