CARY, NC – Starting this weekend, consultants working for the Town of Cary will begin telephoning hundreds of Cary residents and business people during the launch of Focus on Cary 2002--a new annual research initiative expanding efforts to hear from citizens on important policy issues. At the direction of the Town Council, this year’s Focus on Cary topic is "citizen involvement in the Town’s planning and development process."

Citizens will be asked to rate their satisfaction with the timing, frequency, and impact of current public involvement opportunities such as community meetings and public hearings. They will also be asked to evaluate a number of possible changes to the process like the creation of new citizen advisory councils and structures for mandating communications between developers and affected property owners prior to proposing new development.

Throughout November, the Town will conduct two telephone surveys. One will involve a representative sample of property owners that were affected by a Cary planning or development activity in the last year. The other telephone survey will involve a representative sample of developers and property owners that initiated a planning or development action in Cary in the last year. Focus groups of 10-12 people each will be drawn from the two survey’s respondent groups and asked to meet in early December to further probe and explore issues from the surveys.

"Focus on Cary research initiatives are designed to help ensure that Council has the most complete picture of the community’s preferences on particular policy issues," said Town Public Information Officer Susan Moran. "We hope that everyone who gets called over the next few weeks will give us a few minutes on the phone to share their feelings."

Later this month, the Town will activate the final component of Focus on Cary 2002—a Web poll, the Town of Cary’s first. All Cary citizens will be sent a direct mail postcard inviting them to participate in the Web poll, which will run from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Those without email will be invited to contact the Town to have a hard copy version of the Web poll mailed to them.

"We’re very excited about starting surveying on the Web," said Moran, who noted that more than 88 percent of Cary citizens report having access to the Internet. "We think great numbers of our citizens will become regular participants in our online voting opportunities."

Moran noted that because every type of research methodology has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, the Town decided to use a triangulated approach, incorporating both "push" and "pull" techniques since effective use of these elements in concert significantly improves confidence in the data gathered.

Cary has contracted with BKL Research of Salem, VA to conduct the telephone surveys and focus groups at a cost of $23,700. Results are expected in January and may be a topic of discussion at the Town Council’s annual planning retreat.

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