Guiding Principles

1.   All economic development policies shall have as the first and foremost objective the maintenance of the quality of life objectives of Cary’s citizens.

2.   Ensure that property taxes remain low for Cary’s citizens.

3.   Broaden employment opportunities within town borders to minimize traffic and infrastructure pressures.

4.   Evaluate and enhance Cary’s availability of labor, infrastructure and capital resources to support new and expanding businesses.

5.   Improve communication between the Town of Cary and the business community.

6.   Attract clean, environmentally friendly industry to protect our natural resources and enhance our quality of life.

Guidelines for Policies and Programs

1.   Cary should strive to have the strongest economic development indicators in the region while maintaining its high quality of life.

2.   Cary ’s current residential/nonresidential balance should move toward nonresidential.

3.   There should be balance between retention of existing businesses and recruitment of new businesses as appropriate to economic conditions.

4.   Cary should target businesses that bring higher than average economic benefits coupled with low adverse impact.

5.   Cary should consider the prudent, case-by-case use of incentives to increase its economic growth.

6.   Cary should focus on specific geographic areas of the Town for development and tailor programs to the unique needs of each area.

7.   The commission’s role should be refocused beyond that of a policy advisory group and should include economic development activities.

8.   Cary’s primary economic development organization for the near term should remain the Cary Chamber of Commerce with an integral and complementary role being played by the EDC.