Harold’s Blog: Downtown Development
Cary, NC – This week’s activities were mostly related to Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting. Read more
Posts
Reflections on Backyard Chickens
Cary, NC — Backyard chickens crossed the road to legality about a year ago in Cary after years of discussion and debate among citizens and Town Council members. Pro and anti-chicken “special interests”—as Mayor Weinbrecht called them—ruffled quite a few feathers as they lobbied for and against Cary residents’ right to keep hens for eggs and companionship. Read more
Harold’s Blog: 93 Eagle Scouts
Cary, North Carolina — This was a slower week than normal which was a nice break. Read more
Harold’s Blog: Cary On!
Cary, NC – This was a light week for me and only included a meeting and a few events. Read more
Blog of Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht: July 14, 2013
Cary, NC – This week was a typical mid-summer week with a few meetings and a work session. Read more
Harold’s Blog: Parkside Town Commons and More
Cary, NC – This week was a holiday week as our nation celebrated its independence. In addition to the Independence celebration at Booth amphitheater, the week consisted of several meetings.
Monday – Neighborly Agreements
On Monday I traveled to Apex town hall to meet with officials about potential service agreements related to water and sewer.
There are times when both towns would like to allow proposals to move forward but the closest water and sewer lines are not in our town but are in the adjacent town. The best solution to this problem is to create an Interlocal agreement for a period of time until the municipal’s water and sewer become available.
So the purpose of this meeting was to discuss the pros and cons of these types of agreements. These agreements have occurred in the past and will probably be more frequent in the future.
Tuesday – Parkside Town Commons
Tuesday I met with development representatives for the Parkside Town Commons being built at I540 and Highway 55.
This project is similar in size to the Park West shopping center in Morrisville. It will have more than 950,000 square feet of mixed-use development on 106.42 Acres. It will also have 375 residential units with 573,495 square feet of non-residential.
By comparison Morrisville’s Park West Shopping Center is on 94.785 Acres and at build out will have 321 residential units with 885,000-895,000 square feet of non-residential.
Phases 1 and 2 of Parkside Town Commons (all but the residential component) should open by late next year. The project will incorporate a main street shopping district anchored by “big box” tenants, as well as retail shops, office and entertainment including a movie theater.
The concerns are about a railroad crossing at O’Kelly Chapel Road that developers will be extending. NCDOT Rail requires two to three rail crossings to be closed for every one opened.
In the bond referendum last fall Cary voters approved a grade separated crossing for Morrisville Carpenter Road which should eventually address the issue of opening a crossing at O’Kelly Chapel Road.
Wednesday – Faiths
Wednesday I had two meetings. My first meeting was with a local pastor who visits me a few times a year to see how I am doing and to pray for me. God bless him and his congregation for all they do in our community.
My second meeting on Wednesday was related to development interest in the area near the Hindu Temple on Highway 54. The expressed interest was in a mixed use development along with a medium density residential development.
Thursday – July 4th in Cary
Thursday I had the pleasure to attend the 4th of July celebration and Booth Amphitheater. We were all treated to great performances from the Cary Town Band and then the NC Symphony.
Before the symphony I gave welcoming remarks and introduced scouts who led all of us in the pledge of allegiance. The fireworks show began at 9:20 and was fantastic as usual.
Emails from Staff
Roundabout 5k
In emails from staff this week an update on the downtown roundabouts stated that the concrete has been poured and they should be open by late this week. A press release was more conservative and had the roundabouts being completed by the week of July 22nd.
The town will celebrate the opening of the downtown roundabouts along Chatham Street by hosting the Roundabout Cary 5K on July 27th. It will be a charity run to benefit the Town’s Relief for Recreation Scholarship Fund.
Along the race route, runners will go around both roundabouts and be able to see many results from the Town’s ongoing revitalization efforts: The Cary movie theater (opening 2013), the James Jones House (under reconstruction), the Downtown Cary Farmers Market, the Cary Arts Center, and the Downtown Performance Green. For more info, visit Roundabout Cary 5K.
Municipal Tax Rates in Wake
Town staff also sent out information about municipal tax rates in Wake County. Cary continues to have the lowest tax rate in Wake County. Here are the tax rates in order from lowest to highest:
- Cary .3500
- Raleigh .3826
- Fuquay-Varina .3850
- Apex .3900
- Morrisville .3900
- Knightdale .4300
- Holly Springs .4350
- Rolesville .4400
- Garner .4900
- Wendell .4900
- Wake Forest .5100
- Zebulon .5250
Plans Under Review
In other emails from staff the following plans were entered in June as currently under review:
- A 2,372sf expansion of Crossroads Quicklane building on Piney Plains
- Parkside Commons 148,965sf of commercial development on Highway 55.
- BayOak greenway trail at Weatherfield townhomes.
- 12 townhomes at Weatherfield Townhomes on Havensite Court.
Emails from Citizens
Emails from citizens included a threat of legal action because of an incident with his neighbor, requests to fund Cary Creative Center (we did this at our June meeting), requests not to approve a rezoning, and several requests to attend and speak at events.
Next week will include several meetings and a work session on updating council about the Imagine Cary process.
Get in Touch
Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday July 14th. Although I have Facebook and Twitter accounts those are not the best means of communications with me. Please send all Town of Cary questions or comments to Harold.Weinbrecht@townofcary.org and email personal comments to augustanat@mindspring.com.
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From the blog of Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. Photo by Brian Speice.
Cary Mayor’s Blog: July 1, 2013
Cary, NC – This was a busy week in Cary that included a long budget related meeting and a regularly scheduled council meeting.
Read more
Harold’s Blog: June 24, 2013
From the blog of Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht.
Cary, NC – This week was a busy week full of events including the opening of a new fire station. Read more
Fire Station 8 Dedication in Cary
[Editor’s Note: This summer, CaryCitizen is rich in talented, smart interns. We sent Austin Cooper, a rising senior at UNC Chapel Hill, to cover the opening of Fire Station #8, a “climate showcase” building designed with environmental sustainability in mind.
“How was it?” I asked Austin on the phone. Long silence. I could sense his disapproval. Read more
Angst Report: College Grad Returns to Cary
Story by Jamie Berger, CaryCitizen’s summer writing intern. Photo by Brian Speice, CaryCitizen’s summer photo intern.
Cary, NC – The deceptively innocent question, “So, what’s next?” becomes somewhat of a cruel cliché when asked of soon-to-be college graduates or recent grads. We hear it so many times that our responses start to sound scripted. In many cases—at least when the answers are less than promising—they actually are, because “I don’t know” never satisfies. At least for me, directing this question inwards provoked a series of existential crises that eventually escalated into a full-blown quarter life crisis. Yes, that’s really a thing. Google it.
Until a couple weeks ago, my answer was “I’m going to gain some professional experience for a year or two before returning to law school or grad school.” In other words, “I have no idea.” In other other words, “I’m going back home ‘til I can figure it all out.”
It wasn’t just my uncertain future, the scary headlines about unemployment rates among college graduates, my impending eviction from academia’s comfy cradle, or the prospect of an endless cycle of internships that generated my final-semester panic. I was also horrified of ending up back at home. In Cary.
There has been a bit of hubbub lately surrounding Cary’s lack of “Millennials,” also known as Generation Y. I was one of this age group’s few representatives at the recent Imagine Cary Summit, where I learned that Cary has a significantly smaller percentage of residents between the ages of 20 and 29 than Raleigh, Wake County, and North Carolina. Most of us who grew up in Cary in the late 1980s and early 1990s leave for college… and don’t come back.
Nevertheless, I did end up there after graduation, and found myself savoring my time in my hometown. Few other places are as serene as my own backyard in one of Cary’s “older” neighborhoods – though not beautifully manicured like other lots in town, its lovely wildness and quiet, scurrying life dazzle on late afternoons in summer. Creeping ivy and half-foot saplings are slowly reclaiming the shady, forest-bound yard where I used to play badminton on bare feet. My house, now over twenty three years old, shows its age in well-worn carpet and dated wallpaper. Timeworn photos of middle school friends have faded on a sunlit wall. This place has grown up with me.
I was beginning to look forward to spending more time in Cary—realizing my nightmare of “ending up” there was more like a dream—when I was offered an internship in Washington, DC that I couldn’t refuse. I haven’t spent more than several weeks at a time in Cary since I left for college four years ago, and this summer will be no different.
Sometimes I don’t even fully unpack my bags; I live out of a suitcase in my own house.
Now that I’m living in DC, I couldn’t be happier. It has everything a person of my generation could want: the freedom of not needing a car, dense, walkable neighborhoods, a plethora of (often free) cultural offerings, restaurants serving almost every type of cuisine, and immense opportunity to explore many possible answers to the question, “So, what’s next?” After only a week here, I’ve already caught the bug of urban life.
But my ephemeral Cary summers—and Christmases and Thanksgivings—will still be some of my favorite parts of the year. Cary is not only a calming escape from college or, now, professional life; it’s also where the people (and animals!) I love are most concentrated. After living in rental after rental after rental, Cary is still the only place in the world where my bed, my room, my backyard, my town exist. As a transient twenty something, I treasure the sights, smells, and comforts of my one and only home, and I’ll always go back there, if only for a couple weeks at a time.
Related
Here are a few of our favorite stories from previous CaryCitizen interns and student-contributors.
- Brian Schmid: The Many Shades of Boy Scouting
- Brennin Cummings: Crowd at Death Cab For Cutie a “Quiet Bunch”
- Travis Toth: Cary Exchange Student: Thanksgiving in Copenhagen