FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 23, 2000

CARY, NC – The first of two open houses to receive public input on the Town of Cary’s draft Town Center Area Plan (TCAP) will be held tomorrow from 3:00 to 8:00 PM at the Cary Community Center, 404 N. Academy St; brief presentations will be given at 3:00 PM, 5:30 PM, and 7:00 PM. TCAP is the long-range master plan for downtown Cary and its neighborhoods, and includes recommendations for future land uses, development and redevelopment, housing, and parks and greenways. The Plan is the result of an 18-month collaborative effort between Cary Planning Division staff, consultants, and a special 12-member Citizens Advisory Committee appointed by the Town Council to represent both downtown neighborhood and business interests. The open house input will be used to help guide final revisions to the draft Plan prior to its submission to Town Council for an official public hearing in the first quarter of 2001.

"This open house is an essential part of the Town's ongoing long-range planning efforts which seek to include the maximum degree of citizen input possible," said Cary’s Principal Planner Scott Ramage.

Tomorrow’s open house will present an opportunity for citizen to view and give feedback on range of topics, organized into three categories: 1) existing zoning, age of building stock, floodplains, stream buffers, and plans for the TTA regional commuter rail system; 2) recommendations of the draft Plan for land use, roadways, parks, greenways, bikeways, sidewalks, and urban design; 3) next steps in the project, including information about future downtown planning efforts.

Special elements of the open house include aerial photography plus a series of photo-simulations depicting downtown redevelopment, produced by the Design Research Laboratory at NCSU. "We think that by viewing these computer-generated photo-realistic images, citizens can quickly get a sense of how they feel about the vision recommended by the draft Plan," said Ramage.

The second TCAP open house will be held on Thursday, November 2^nd from 3:00 to 8:00 PM at First Baptist Church, 218 S. Academy Street in Cary.

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