CARY BREAKS NEW GROUND WITH CHAT ROOM MEETINGS  

CARY, NC – North Carolina’s Technology Town has another first—the first local government in the Triangle (and perhaps the state) to conduct a multi-day online public meeting.  Proposed principles and policies for the vision element chapter of its Comprehensive Plan is the topic of the Town of Cary ’s first Internet threaded discussion.  Chat rooms, which will moderated by Town of Cary Planning staff, will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today through Thursday, January 8, 2004 . 

The effort is part of enVision Cary, a community effort to solidify a vision for Cary for the next 20 years.  The policies and principles resulting from enVision Cary will help guide key areas of Town planning, from transportation and growth and development to schools and public involvement in the planning and development process.  “Given all the demands on families every day, it’s often difficult for folks to arrange their schedules to make it to a community meeting, even when the topic is important,” said Planning Director Jeff Ulma.  “Since about 90 percent of Cary citizens have access to the Internet, we thought it made sense to think outside the usual governmental box when it comes to public meetings.”   

Anyone with access to the Internet can participate in the online chat by logging on to www.townofcary.org and selecting the enVision Cary icon.  Users will need to register to participate in the threaded discussion.  Anonymous postings will not be accepted, and moderators will delete postings that do not support a focused, professional environment.  

In addition to the threaded discussion, the Town of Cary hosted an online poll on the same topics throughout the month of November 2003.  

The Town will also hold a community meeting in the coming weeks to report on what citizens said online and to get additional citizen feedback before taking the Vision Element to the Town Council for a vote later this year.  

For more information on enVision Cary, click on the project’s icon on the splash page of www.townofcary.org or call the Planning Department at (919) 469-4082.

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