Google Fiber Update

Google Fiber has been  nano-trenching  across Cary since Summer 2017. Nano-trenching, a method of running fiber within the street pavement without boring or tearing up a homeowner’s yard, is a Google technology that was being piloted in the Weston Oaks neighborhood starting last fall.

The nano-trenching method causes no conflicts with the Town’s utilities and minimizes the need to perform locates. Since the pilot began, there have been zero utility strikes from Google Fiber. However, there are still short runs with traditional bore installations that require action by locate staff.

We did see a decline in the number of locate tickets in Q2 FY 2016 to FY 2017, from 19,000 to 14,000 respectively. The chart shows total locate tickets as well as Google Fiber tickets for this period.

The  number of Town-issued encroachment  agreements to install fiber on Town-owned streets has been relatively modest over this  quarter. There were 35 encroachment agreements approved during this period, which translates into approximately 34.27 miles of fiber approved to be installed.

Residential Permit Patterns

In Quarter 2 there were 34 development plans approved, Eleven of these were for residential developments. These approved development plans contained 240 lots and 454 multi-family units. Over half of the approved multi-family units (250) in this quarter were assisted living units associated with Health Park at Kildaire.

New single-family permits for Quarter 2 (213) were up slightly relative to this quarter’s five-year average (210). New single-family permits were issued in 39 subdivisions  with the top five subdivisions for new single-family permits in Quarter 2 being Philips Place, Glen at Westhigh, Oaks at Sears Farm  South, Courtyard on O’Kelly and Peninsula at Amberly.

Residential alteration and addition permits  for Quarter 2 (417) were also up relative to this quarter’s five-year average (367). The continued upward trend of residential alteration and addition permits is consistent with the redevelopment theme in the 2040 Imagine Cary Community Plan. 

Smart Cities Update

This  year, the Town was recognized with  awards by both Smart Cities Dive (Rising  Star) and Smart Cities Connect & US Ignite  (Smart 50 Award) for our innovative use of  testing smart technology by creating a living lab/simulated smart city on our Town Hall campus.

Town Hall campus represents a   mini-city by utilizing existing facilities   and a cost-effective ecosystem for   experimenting with next-generation Internet  of Things (IoT). This program incubates IoT  technologies powered by community partners  that create an ecosystem to test, develop,  and showcase solutions on our campus at  little to no cost. This allows the Town to test technology before deploying on a larger scale.
  
The lessons learned and goal from the living  lab will be used to build the ultimate citizen-connected community. We know that our citizens increasingly expect the same level  of service, technology, and communication  from their Town government as they expect  from the private sector. We want to meet our  community where they are with the technology  they already use in their daily lives; whether it’s sending our traffic data and road closures to Waze, using Alexa to find open gym times, or reporting a missed trash collection.

The Town recognizes that while  technology is a vital aspect of building a citizen connected community and the backbone of how much of it will be delivered, we are focused on designing the solutions  around the needs of our citizens. Our goal is to enrich the lives of our citizens by   strengthening our connection through the   use of technology and data.