Thirty middle schoolers enjoyed pizza, music and glow-in-the-dark Cosmic Asteroids Dodgeball at Middle Creek Community Center. The event was so popular that adults are now requesting a session just for parents.

On Halloween, over 100 “mummies” and their sons participated in a costume contest, danced the Monster Mash, played spooky fun games and topped their ice cream with a variety of “creepy crawly” items at the Mummy and Son Ball.

In October, Epic Games announced plans to expand its headquarters in Cary, utilizing eight acres of property the company already owns at the corner of Dillard Drive and Jones Franklin Road. The expansion proposes a new facility to accommodate up to 2,000 employees within a new office building and associated parking deck. Cary staff has been meeting regularly with members of Epic’s development team to ensure concerns are addressed early in the process. In December, Epic submitted the first development plan for this multi-phase project.

The Downtown Cary Parking Deck and Library dedication and grand opening was held on November 3, 2019. The grand opening showcased the partnership between Cary and Wake County with speeches from members of Town Council, County Commissioners, and library officials, songs from a school group, and a ribbon cutting. According to data from Wake County, the total door count was 3,728, and first-day circulation was 3,971. Citizens were able to park in the seven-story, six-hundred-space parking deck. 

The new 23,450-square-foot library, the largest in the county, holds 90,000 books, 32 public computers and numerous program spaces.  The first floor features the children’s collection and a large children’s program room; the second floor features the Adult Services collection, a community meeting room and a quiet study. The Cary-owned lower level rooms provide restroom facilities for downtown park users and a shell space for future programming.

Clearing and grading of the Fenton site continued through Q2. The developer expects to begin vertical construction in July 2020 with the first phase of the development, including Wegmans, opening in November 2021. 

The first phase of Fenton, approximately one million square feet, will include 365,000 square feet of retail (currently over 50 percent leased), 150,000 square feet of office space, 354 residential dwelling units and a 175-room boutique hotel.

Cary was one of the first jurisdictions in North Carolina to integrate live video technology with building code enforcement. After Cary staff worked with the NC Department of Insurance on a pilot to determine the best way to apply this approach while maintaining the integrity of the inspection process, the idea was adopted in July 2019 for all jurisdictions in North Carolina. In most cases, this process allows for the approval of inspections that were disapproved earlier in the day. Cary has performed 339 remote inspections since its inception, including 160 in Q2. These numbers represent approximately one percent of the total number of annual inspections. Our goal is to get closer to 5 percent, which would be the equivalent of the number of inspections performed by a full-time field inspector in a year.

For Q2, residential alteration and addition permits totaled 348. This gradual increase in permits for existing homes is consistent with the theme of reinvestment in existing properties contained in the Imagine Cary Community Plan. 

In Q2, six new non-residential permits were issued, for a total of 236,279 square feet. The three largest new non-residential permits issued were: 

• Bee Safe Storage and Wines Cellar, 9021 Chapel Hill Road – a new 64,266 square-foot, three-story climate controlled self-storage and wine cellar facility.  
• Pet Paradise, 8795 Holly Springs Road – a 19,522 square-foot indoor pet boarding facility, including indoor pool, play yards, kennels, grooming, veterinary services space, offices space and administrative space. 
• Lowes Foods at Greystone Shopping Center, 687 Mills Park Drive – a new 49,773 square-foot grocery store. During Q2, all four retail buildings within the Greystone Shopping Center were also permitted. 

In Q2, 121 non-residential alterations and additions permits were issued. The three largest projects were: 

• WakeMed Cary Hospital, 1900 Kildare Farm Road – alterations to staff offices and conversion of break area into postpartum patient rooms.
• The Umstead Hotel interior renovation,100 Woodland Pond Drive – minor electrical and mechanical modifications as part of a project to refresh existing guestrooms (carpet, wallcovering, paint). 
• Crossroads Office Building Alteration, 2333 Walnut Street – conversion of the former Crossroads Ford building into an office building. 

During Q2, there were 24 cases in the rezoning process; the following six cases were approved.

1. Weston Planned Development District (PDD) O&1-2a Amendment – added hotel as a permitted use with zoning conditions related to building height, buffer width and traffic improvements. 
2. Alston Avenue Preliminary Development Plan (PDP) – rezoning to MXD PDP for 330 multi-family and 50 townhomes. 
3. Searstone Phase II PDD Amendment – PDD amendment to a portion of the previously- approved Searstone PDD located at 17001 Searstone Drive consisting of realigning a portion of the road network and reconfiguring building location and footprint. Removed the condition to build a conservatory and added a condition requiring additional community gathering space. 
4. 9916 Morrisville Parkway Rezoning – request to apply initial Town of Cary zoning to approximately 2.53 acres located at 9916 Morrisville Parkway. The zoning request was for R-12-CU with zoning conditions that include limiting land use to a maximum of three 
   detached dwellings. 
5. Cary Town Center PDP – Mixed-Use Development with up to 1,200,000 sf of office, 1,800 multi-family units, 360,000 sf of commercial use and up to 
   450 hotel rooms. 
6. Sri Venkateswara Temple of NC – O&I zoning accommodated the height of a new monument with lighting limitations on monument.

Twenty-six development plans were approved in Q2, with over 142,000 square feet of non-residential use. The expansion of a medical office with lower-level parking under the building, the plan for a new preschool and a new office building accounted for most of the nonresidential projects. In addition to the non-residential use, development plans were also approved for 641 multi-family units and 52 single-family lots. Cary Solis and Lafayette Park accounted for most of multi-family units while Carpenters Pointe Townhomes accounted for most of the single-family units.