An open-ended question asked respondents what they feel is the most important issue facing the Town of Cary (Appendix L). The responses show that problems related to growth were again perceived as the key issue just as they were last year. There were 124 comments concerning controlling growth. In addition, there were other growth-related issues of overdevelopment (17 comments), overpopulation (16 comments), and construction (4 comments). This resulted in 161 total comments on the subject. The key concern besides growth was the schools with 53 comments. The respondents mentioned reassignment and year-round schools as concerns. The third major concern was traffic/improving roads (35 comments) followed by attracting new businesses/jobs (12 comments), budgeting/spending (11 comments), and safety/crime (10 comments). The respondents mentioned other issues to a lesser degree including economic conditions (6 comments), improving downtown (6 comments), planning (6 comments), and high taxes (5 comments).
For a comparison basis, the most important issues in 2008 were growth (215 comments), traffic/ improving roads (68 comments), water concerns (62 comments), and schools (60 comments). Overall, growth continues to be the most important issue but it has decreased somewhat in importance. Traffic/improving roads and school issues continue to be major issues while water concerns have fallen off dramatically.