Cary, NC
Community Plan
After experiencing thirty years of strong growth, community leaders recognized that current economic and demographic trends needed to be addressed to maintain the community’s high quality-of-life. Located within North Carolina’s “Research Triangle,” the Town of Cary is an affluent suburb of Raleigh, the state’s capital, with a reputation for its progressive approach to development and planning. Working with Clarion Associates and Planning NEXT, the Town designed and conducted a process, which came to be known as “Imagine Cary” to connect its many specific topic plans into a single, integrated, and comprehensive policy guide for the future.
Enthusiasm for the process
Enthusiasm for the process was felt immediately when, after advertising a call to serve on the citizen steering committee, over 400 people applied. Once established, this group helped the Team execute a robust publicity and outreach campaign to get the community involved. The public kickoff event was the largest public meeting in the Town’s history. Close to 800 Cary residents provided their input on issues facing the Town. Following the kick-off event, a series of Area Conversations were hosted throughout the community, while additional input was gathered through the project website.
flyers & posters, newspaper ads, press releases, email, videos, social media, festival appearances, presentations to civic groups, corporate partners
Extensive publicity and outreach activities ensured that all citizens were aware of the opportunities to get involved and made participation a choice.
Engagement in big numbers
The public kickoff event, the Summit on the Future, was the largest public meeting in the town’s history, and one of the largest ever in the State. Close to 800 Cary residents provided their input on issues facing the community. Keypad polling showed participants, in real-time, what they collectively thought about issues. The kickoff was followed by a series of Area Conversations and Policy Choices Workshops which included opportunities to participate online.
Innovative Online Activities
Technology and innovation were at the forefront of the Imagine Cary process. To complement in-person events, Planning NEXT created a special Open House webpage to allow people to learn about the plan and provide feedback at their own pace. Cary’s online Open House provided a detailed and interactive summary of the ten chapters in the plan. Visitors were also able to view the plan online in full, download a full PDF, or view special planning sections and detailed maps.
For the Policy Choices Workshops, Planning NEXT developed a custom online application that mirrored activities conducted on paper response forms. Participants at the workshops could respond using traditional paper forms or with their own tablet computers via this web tool. The online activity continued to collect input for several weeks following the initial in-person workshops.
learn more:
www.imaginecary.org
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Tags
Project Type: comprehensive plan
Community Type: mid-size city, suburb
Client: Town of Cary
Services: pre-planning, public engagement, social media and online engagement
