The Town of Cary Land Use Plan

5.0 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

As detailed in the first several chapters of this plan, Cary has tremendous historic, natural, and economic resources that provide defining characteristics for the town. Preserving these resources while supporting wise growth is of primary importance for residents. Based on citizen comments derived from town meetings and work by the Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the following goals and objectives for guiding future growth were developed. These goals and objectives form the foundation upon which the Land Use Plan is built. They were adopted in June 1995.

1. Goal: Maintain and enhance a strong sense of community.

Objectives:

  1. Maintain Cary’s unique character and small-town atmosphere;
  2. Promote Cary's positive image as a desirable community in which to live and work;
  3. Keep and encourage a strong physical sense of both neighborhood and community;
  4. Preserve open space(s);
  5. Promote Cary's distinct heritage and traditions.

2. Goal: Preserve and maintain Cary's attractive visual appearance.

Objectives:

  1. Encourage and maintain landscaping of public spaces such as major thoroughfares, gateways, or entry ways into Cary;
  2. Encourage attractive "boulevard" medians and street landscaping;
  3. Provide appropriate buffers as transitions between land uses;
  4. Promote strong architectural, appearance, and landscaping standards for development;
  5. Encourage architectural unity and continuity without sacrificing diversity;
  6. Enforce and maintain sign controls.

3. Goal: Preserve Cary's environmental resources.

Objectives:

  1. Promote and preserve trees, urban forests, and natural open spaces during development;
  2. Preserve and maintain Cary's water quality and resources by protecting natural stream corridors and watersheds;
  3. Mitigate the adverse impacts of noise and air pollution.

4. Goal: Manage Cary 's growth and development to maintain and enhance Cary's quality of life.

Objectives:

  1. Place compatible land uses next to each other;
  2. Promote unobtrusive building height, mass, and scale with respect to surrounding development and tree canopy;
  3. Preserve, maintain, and revitalize Cary’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods;
  4. Encourage and provide for mixed-use development with a variety of housing types, densities, nonresidential uses, open spaces, and recreational amenities;
  5. Encourage office development in campus-type settings;
  6. Promote appropriate infill development;
  7. Concentrate nonresidential development to avoid commercial strip-type development;
  8. Encourage small-scale neighborhood-oriented commercial development where appropriate;
  9. Encourage development at a pedestrian scale;
  10. Encourage traditional neighborhood design standards, with pedestrian-oriented, integrated neighborhood amenities such as neighborhood recreation, open spaces, and commercial services;
  11. Define and control suburban sprawl;
  12. Space shopping centers and commercial development appropriately according to development standards.

5. Goal: Provide adequate, high quality, and well maintained public services, amenities, and facilities.

Objectives:

  1. Proactively plan, in conjunction with Wake and neighboring counties, for high-quality, well-maintained, neighborhood-oriented schools, particularly with regard to the impact of development upon the school system;
  2. Provide public libraries to adequately serve Cary's growing population;
  3. Develop recreational, sports, and cultural facilities to provide and sustain an adequate level of service;
  4. Develop neighborhood-oriented, community, and regional parks, open spaces, and greenways to adequately serve Cary's growing and existing population;
  5. Maintain and improve the current high level of public safety and emergency services;
  6. Expand and maintain Cary's utility infrastructure to adequately serve future growth and development.

6. Goal: Provide a comprehensive multi-modal transportation system for Cary.

Objectives:

  1. Design a thoroughfare system that comprehensively incorporates a variety of transportation modes for adequate access, flow, connectivity, safety, and mobility;
  2. Improve thoroughfares to keep pace with new growth and development;
  3. Proactively plan, in conjunction with other agencies, for public transportation for travel both within Cary and between Cary and other Triangle locations;
  4. Emphasize pedestrian-oriented development to achieve a comprehensive system of bicycle lanes, greenways, and sidewalks that connect to neighborhoods, parks, schools, offices, commercial areas, and other public spaces.

7. Goal: Support balanced, appropriate economic development.

Objectives:

  1. Encourage high quality, "clean and "green" businesses and industries to locate or expand in Cary;
  2. Maintain a reasonable tax rate that attracts business and is attractive to the existing business and residential community;
  3. Promote the balanced growth of residential/non-residential land uses with respect to the economic vitality of the community and contribution to the tax base.

8. Goal: Promote and sustain a progressive and positive planning process for Cary.

Objectives:

  1. Equitably disperse the costs for the expansion and maintenance of Cary’s infrastructure between the public and private sectors, including the transportation system, recreational and cultural facilities, open spaces, and schools;
  2. Effectively manage long-term growth through a comprehensive and proactive planning process;
  3. Master plan development under the Planned Unit Development concept;
  4. Actively participate in regional planning efforts;
  5. Support effective zoning, land use, and development regulations and enforcement.

9. Goal: Proactively address Cary’s housing issues.

Objectives:

  1. Maintain and protect residential property values;
  2. Encourage the availability of housing for a wide range of income groups, including the disabled, senior citizens, and middle income residents;
  3. Permit and actively encourage higher residential densities in appropriate locations to support mass transit;
  4. Encourage creative and innovative strategies, schemes, and development that positively addresses Cary's housing issues.

These goals are the guiding principles around which the policies, design concepts, and criteria for future growth have been designed. The succeeding chapters present the new growth model for Cary, the Land Use Plan Map, and recommendations for implementing the model.