AMHERST — At the northern edge of downtown is District 4, a section of Amherst that includes historic neighborhoods bordering the University of Massachusetts campus, a large swath of the campus itself and a number of single-family homes, some situated near the high school and middle school, in developments extending east to the East Amherst village center.

Defying the trends in which candidates endorsed by Amherst Forward political action committee earned nine of the 13 spots on the Town Council to be seated in January, the 656 voters who cast ballots in the least populated of Amherst’s five districts, which has just 1,746 voters, reelected incumbents Pamela Rooney and Jennifer Taub.

Both Taub and Rooney have been advocating for providing more housing for a year-round diverse population to stem the tide of declining public school enrollment, push back on investors converting homes to more student rentals, and expressing concerns with a comprehensive zoning proposal unveiled earlier in the year that they feared would add significant housing density.

Taub said Wednesday that the declining year-round, non-college student population is a concern, and that a top issue she heard during her campaign is the continued loss of family housing to the student rental market.

“Families and our local workforce are being priced out of both the rental market and homeownership opportunities,” Taub said.

Taub said this prompted her to run on a “striking a balance” platform between year-round and student residents.

Not only did voters give her and Rooney new terms, but in doing so they displaced a third incumbent, Anika Lopes, who had to compete against two fellow incumbents due to redistricting that placed Taub in the district. Lopes and Dillon Maxfield received Amherst Forward endorsements.

At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker, also not endorsed by the PAC, also did well in District 4, with 382 votes being the top vote getter among five candidates, and giving her the margins needed to finish in the top three townwide and be reelected. Walker’s 2,191 votes bested challenger Matt Holloway by 62 votes, with her 118-vote margin in District 4 earning Walker a second term on the council, alongside Andy Steinberg and Mandi Jo Hanneke.

Though she didn’t win a seat on the Town Council, Jamie Daniels, another candidate for an at-large seat who advocated for UMass to build more housing for students, earned the second most votes in District 4, with 367.

The voters in that part of Amherst have shown a streak of voting against Amherst Forward’s slate. Two years ago, before the redistricting that moved her from District 3 to District 4, Taub knocked off Forward-endorsed incumbent George Ryan, joining Dorothy Pam on the Town Council. Ryan is now returning as a councilor from a new District 3 that brings in the area of downtown he lives in, and which extends north-south from the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass to the apartment complexes along East Hadley Road.

And at the same election in 2021, Rooney narrowly earned her first term from District 4, ousting Forward-endorsed incumbent Evan Ross, and joining Lopes as a councilor.

At that time, both Ross and Ryan had faced criticism for supporting the rezoning of the town-owned parking lot off North Prospect Street, which would accommodate a second downtown parking garage, should that project be pursued. Residents who live near that site have worried about the historic integrity of their neighborhood.

Pam said a key to Taub and Rooney’s success is that there are many people who don’t agree with what she argues is Amherst Forward’s plans to urbanize Amherst by amending zoning bylaws to weaken permitting regulations, which would make it harder for resident abutters to have input regarding new building development on their streets. “There are many very intelligent people in Amherst who don’t live safely in the woods,” Pam said.

But she also credits their constituent service and work on the council’s Community Resources Committee, where they have demonstrated their knowledge of and work with their neighborhoods.

In a column Taub and Rooney wrote in advance of the election, they cited statistics showing that since 2015, Amherst has permitted 862 new housing units, mostly for students, only 82 of which are single-family homes. In calling this out, though, they have faced criticism from those who want the tax base enlarged and say Amherst’s economy depends on housing and other development projects, as there is little industry in town outside of housing and real estate.

“Our town’s changing demographic is a vitally important lens through which Town Council policies and decisions should be evaluated — we should ask whether a particular decision helps to reverse the trend of a declining non-student population or exacerbate it,” they wrote.

In a column responding to what she saw as an exclusionary housing policy, though, Lopes recalled her childhood growing up in town and and called for “inclusive planning,” and disagreed with the statement from Rooney and Taub that “the only constituency that has a stake in maintaining a robust year-round population is us — the year-round residents of Amherst.”

Lopes reflected on canvassing she did in advance of the election and people she spoke with. “They highlighted a shared desire for a more diverse and inclusive community that welcomes young families, supports first-time homeowners, and offers housing options  for retirees who want to downsize while staying in the community,” she said.

Pam, who opted against seeking a third term, endorsed both Rooney and Taub in a letter to her supporters, praising her colleagues’ column and their call for a “housing balance” in Amherst.

“The proper task of town government is to create and run a town that values and supports its year-round residents who care enough about the town to serve on its many committees–a place where families, students, homeowners, renters, retirees, people with different backgrounds and talents come together to create a living community,” Pam wrote. “Then, as in successful college towns, students will come back to live here full time; their parents might move here to retire, having been entranced by the town on their visits to their children in college.”