Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In years and posts past, I have used this forum to explain that cities cannot financially sustain on tax revenues from suburban development alone and that investment in downtowns returns its investment in spades over time by making the land area more productive for the city (as in tax revenues). These revenues will be needed to support the aging suburban infrastructure of the future. So my advise to residents of newly developed areas of any town or city is to not be shortsighted and embrace all efforts to make your total community stronger.
In years and posts past, I have used this forum to explain that cities cannot financially sustain on tax revenues from suburban development alone and that investment in downtowns returns its investment in spades over time by making the land area more productive for the city (as in tax revenues). These revenues will be needed to support the aging suburban infrastructure of the future. So my advise to residents of newly developed areas of any town or city is to not be shortsighted and embrace all efforts to make your total community stronger.
And with the law the way it is now, it's very difficult if not impossible for towns to split apart or merge. This came up a few years ago in Morrisville which honestly with the way it overlaps with Cary an argument could be made they should merge but it can't happen.
Cary has not widened roads...
-Morrisville Parkway through Greystone
-Carpenter Fire Station Road from Cameron Pond to Yates Store Road
-Yates Store Road through Amberly
-McCrimmon Parkway from PCHS to GLCR
-GLCR from Greystone north to McCrimmon and north of O'Kelly Chapel Road
-NC 55 (6 lane areas) at Parkside
All of these roads have been built/widened and are four lanes because Cary paid for them or Cary made developers pay for them. The CFS bridge (at the railroad near NC 55) will be $18 million, Green Level West widening (NC 55 to NC 540) will be $13 million, and the completion of Morrisville Parkway and the interchange will be $17 million. All of this is being done on state roads and being paid for by Cary. Those are the three biggest town projects in years, and they all are in west Cary. Also, there is now talk about the CFS widening from 55 to Cameron Pond as well. Additionally, because of development, within the next few years O'Kelly Chapel Road will be four lanes from NC 55 to Yates Store Road and NC 55 will be six lanes from NC 540/Parkside south to McCrimmon Parkway. There is also only a few more developments to fully widen GLCR from McCrimmon to O'Kelly Chapel. Go look at west Apex or west Holly Springs (which are developing just as fast) and count how many four lane roads you see (hint: the answer is zero, besides NC 55, which was state funded).
One more response. You mention Morrisville. Look at McCrimmon Parkway (in their jurisdiction, Davis to Chapel Hill), Chapel Hill Road, and Aviation Parkway/Morrisville Carpenter Road. All of those are two lane roads that have 2x the amount of traffic as all those four lane roads in west Cary. If Cary and Morrisville merged into one town, all of those roads would be funded for widening (using town funds) a lot sooner than the current state (where NCDOT will widen them several years from now).
The other towns are pretty good with roads and very nice places to live, but when it comes to road construction and widening, Cary has the best system.
Morrisville has the nicest Dairy Queen in the world. I think we should annex them, rename it Blizzard Oaks, and spin West Cary off after we make them repaint all the beige, which Cary has trademarked.
Has the time come for West Cary to establish itself as a separate City? It seems to be the Town of Cary 'stepchild' as infrastructure development in West Cary falls behind Housing developments, and ToC seems far more focused on its grandiose Downtown Development. It would be interesting to see how Tax dollars raised per capita are spent in the different Districts as I am sure many other West Cary residents consider this is an issue. For example, failure to start upgrading Carpenter Firestation Road between NC55 and Cameron Pond; the unnecessary delay in the construction of the 'missing 800 yards of Morrisville Parkway' crossing the 540 Toll Road; the Planning Approval delays on commercial developments; the years of delay in building Mills Park despite the Cary Park developer providing the land free of charge 12 years ago, etc
Another example is the lack of day to day supervision by ToC over Utility companies who seem to leave works unattended for weeks on end for no apparent reason. The best example of this is how AT&T have left work at the pedestrian crosswalk on Green Level / Cary Glen abandoned for over 6 weeks making it virtually impossible for pedestrians to access the crosswalk signal with AT&T's fencing around it; that is one of the busiest crossings in Cary Park for residents wanting to access Cary Park Town Center on foot. Why doesn't the Town of Cary demand AT&T to complete whatever work they are doing and make the crosswalk safe for pedestrians? Does a child crossing the road to McDonalds have to get killed before action is taken?
Maybe it makes more sense for West Cary to join up with Morrisville as they have more in common than 'old' Cary and West Cary. Morrisville has demonstrated great leadership in how it has developed Grace Village (and the other developments at Davis Drive & Morrisville Carpenter), Park West Village and the Shiloh Glenn Walmart. In the meantime Cary has struggled to provide similar commercial development in West Cary despite the population there being substantially greater than Morrisville.
Really? That is interesting, as I remember a ton of complaining about both these projects.
Has the time come for West Cary to establish itself as a separate City? It seems to be the Town of Cary 'stepchild' as infrastructure development in West Cary falls behind Housing developments, and ToC seems far more focused on its grandiose Downtown Development. It would be interesting to see how Tax dollars raised per capita are spent in the different Districts as I am sure many other West Cary residents consider this is an issue. For example, failure to start upgrading Carpenter Firestation Road between NC55 and Cameron Pond; the unnecessary delay in the construction of the 'missing 800 yards of Morrisville Parkway' crossing the 540 Toll Road; the Planning Approval delays on commercial developments; the years of delay in building Mills Park despite the Cary Park developer providing the land free of charge 12 years ago, etc
Another example is the lack of day to day supervision by ToC over Utility companies who seem to leave works unattended for weeks on end for no apparent reason. The best example of this is how AT&T have left work at the pedestrian crosswalk on Green Level / Cary Glen abandoned for over 6 weeks making it virtually impossible for pedestrians to access the crosswalk signal with AT&T's fencing around it; that is one of the busiest crossings in Cary Park for residents wanting to access Cary Park Town Center on foot. Why doesn't the Town of Cary demand AT&T to complete whatever work they are doing and make the crosswalk safe for pedestrians? Does a child crossing the road to McDonalds have to get killed before action is taken?
Maybe it makes more sense for West Cary to join up with Morrisville as they have more in common than 'old' Cary and West Cary. Morrisville has demonstrated great leadership in how it has developed Grace Village (and the other developments at Davis Drive & Morrisville Carpenter), Park West Village and the Shiloh Glenn Walmart. In the meantime Cary has struggled to provide similar commercial development in West Cary despite the population there being substantially greater than Morrisville.
Just to address your comment "For example, failure to start upgrading Carpenter Firestation Road between NC55 and Cameron Pond;"
I believe this section of CFS Rd. is owned by the state and those lots are part of the ETJ of Cary. Therefore, the town is not responsible to widen.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
