Cary Mayor’s Journal Page
Welcome to the informational journal site hosted by Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. It is my hope that this web site will provide not only information about who I am meeting on behalf of the town but what topics were addressed. I believe in an open form of government. This journal page is one of the many steps I hope to implement as mayor to open the governmental process to our citizens. It is my intention to do weekly posts on this site excluding holidays and vacations. I encourage all elected officials who read this page to consider creating a journal page of their own so that their citizens can review their work. After all, we work for them!
July 13, 2008
This week consisted of several meetings with people of special interests and concerned citizens. There were also several interviews this week related to the US Census Bureau’s report that Cary is the 5th fastest growing municipality in the nation.
Monday’s first meeting was with developers of Walnut Place who are proposing an office/retail building at the corner of Walnut Street and Macedonia Road. These are the same developers that built the shopping center at Walnut Street and Tryon Road. Their proposal would change the Land Use Plan from multi family to office at this location. I think this is an idea worth pursuing and encouraged them to move forward with their proposal.
My second meeting on Monday was with a representative of Ryan Homes who is new to the area. He said their intention is to pick up projects that existing developers cannot finish and emphasized that they do not develop properties but build residential structures. He questioned how we plan to build toward the Chatham County line and Holly Springs. I talked to him about looking into infill in our downtown area. It will be interesting to see what projects his company finds worth while.
Other than staff meetings I had no other meetings until Thursday. On Thursday morning I met with residents near the proposed project at Kilmayne Road and Maynard Road. Their main concerns is that the office buildings next to Maynard will be non residential in nature, too close to the street, and too large. They believed that this would affect the properties nearby and start a domino effect similar to what happened on Walnut Street. They made very good points and I have set up a meeting with the developer to discuss these points next week.
One breaking story this week was that Cary was the fifth fastest growing city in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau. I was interviewed by WTVD, NBC-17, WUNC, and the N&O about this topic. In addition, NBC-17 wanted to talk about the involuntary annexation process that the council agreed to start. I think it is important to note that the measurement by the U.S. Census Bureau was from July 2006 to July 2007. Since that time we have seen a dramatic decrease in our growth. For the first quarter of this year permits have dropped by 17% from the last quarter of 2007. I believe we will see a bigger drop in the second quarter once the numbers are in.
My take on the growth rate did not come up in any of the interview broadcasts. I believe that growth is good as long as there is sufficient infrastructure (roads, schools, parks, water, sewer, etc). I think it is important to understand that a 7% growth rate in Cary equates to more than 9000 people in one year. That is equivalent to one of the small towns in Wake County. I don’t believe creating a small town every year within Cary is responsible. I don’t see how Cary could possibly provide the amount of needed infrastructure without a huge tax increase or a significant cut in services.
Well, that is about all I have to post for this week. So I’ll close for now and hopefully post again by Sunday, July 20th.
Previous Posts
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June 2008: |
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May 2008: |
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April 2008: |
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February 2008: |
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January 2008: |
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December 2007: |
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