NC govwatch

← All meetings

Work Session

Town of Cary · Town Council
Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 5:00 pm · Herbert C Young Community Center, 101 Wilkerson Avenue, Cary, NC 27513

Work session Environment and sustainabilityParks and recreationPolice and public safety

Agenda document Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What's on this agenda

Cary's town council discussed a possible ordinance regulating residential-to-residential nuisance lighting, the kind of dispute where one neighbor's floodlight shines into another's yard or bedroom window, and got an update on the town's Open Space Plan, including how much of Cary's land is permanently protected versus only potentially available for preservation.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Staff recommended drafting a lighting ordinance modeled on those already in place in Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro, arguing it would give employees a clear tool to resolve disputes once informal mediation between neighbors fails; councilmembers raised no objection to moving forward with a draft. On open space, staff and council debated how to distinguish land that is permanently protected from land that is merely mapped as potential open space, since the latter carries no guarantee against future development. Council members cited examples of open space near Garden Supply being cleared for construction and asked staff to separate protected acreage from potential acreage in future reporting; staff put Cary's combined public and private open space at 24.7% of the town's land area, with the utility fund generating about $850,000 a year toward acquisitions, down from an original $1 million target. In lieu of manager's announcements, staff shared a sales tax update showing 2% growth as predicted. The meeting had no closed session and adjourned at 6:17 p.m. As a work session, it included no votes and no public comment period.

Speaking at this meeting

Sign up for Public Speaks Out by calling the town before noon on the day of the meeting; each speaker gets three minutes. Comments that arrive after noon are passed to the council as correspondence instead.

Town of Cary's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (1)

Discussion item · 1
  1. 3 Residential Lighting Discussion
    Discussion item Police and public safety
    Staff proposed a residential-to-residential nuisance lighting ordinance, modeled on rules already in place in Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro, that would let the town cite property owners whose lighting disturbs neighbors after informal resolution fails.
    No vote; staff to draft an ordinance for a future council meeting

Other recent meetings of this board