Development Continues to Spark Controversy

Posted by Hal Goodtree News Saturday, August 1st, 2009

The Town of Cary has announced a public meeting to discuss improvements at the corner of Cary Parkway and High House Road.

The intersection, informally known as Preston Corners, has seen a dramatic increase in vehicular traffic and accidents in recent years. Development to the north, south, east and west in the form of new subdivisions and shopping has been cited as a cause of the increase.

Whatever the causes, development continues to spark controversy in the community. Karl Thor, a neighborhood activist, writes in an email:

Despite the Biennial Cary Survey showing that Cary residents have considered growth to be the major problem in Cary across the last 12 years, Cary was the 5th fastest growing city in the country.  Thus the staff and the council in previous years has completely ignored the residents.

A number of PV [Preston Village] residents are members of DavisandHighHouse.org, and we like to remind council that if growth were controlled, there would be no need to be coming up with crazy intersection plans.  If any of you feel similarly, please share your opinions with council about irresponsible growth at this meeting.

But Lindsey Chester, also a member of the David & High House group (and a reporter-at-large for this news organization), had a different take on the issue:

My opinion on this is that, yeah, it’s a crazy solution to a failing intersection- but sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box, not stick your head in the sand.

Growth is already making this intersection FAIL at rush hour. So the time to study and fix it is now.

Widening an already wide intersection is not the solution. I applaud Cary for trying to save the look and feel of Preston corners rather than just adding lanes. To add lanes, we will have another Walnut Street on our doorstep.

The public meeting is next Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at Cary Senior Center, 120 Maury O’Dell Place (Bond Park) , from 5 – 8 PM. More info at TownOfCary.org.

Short URL: http://www.carycitizen.com/?p=153