In January, the Town of Cary announced a land-banking initiative that could help secure land for schools, parks and other public uses.
“Ninety percent of the real estate [in Cary] is accounted for,” said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. He said the goal of the land banking program is “getting what you can while you can and preserve it for future uses.”
Land that the town purchases could be used for a variety of projects.
“The land-banking program may or may not be used for schools. We’re basically setting aside land that can be used,” Weinbrecht said. “If it happens to be used for schools we can sell them that and at market rate.”
Weinbrecht added that the Town of Cary legally is not allowed to donate land to the county or to sell it below market rate.
Town officials will work with staff at Wake County schools to determine if land is viable as a school site. Many factors go into that decision, including not only the site’s location but whether there are existing services such as water and sewer nearby, as well as the cost to develop the land, according to school officials.
Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for Wake County schools, said that the school district would be unable to plan for the future without the cooperation of municipalities like Cary.
“We rely, basically, on the municipalities’ land-use forecast to determine where our students are going to be,” Dulaney said.
In conjunction with the Institute for Transportation and Research Education at N.C. State University, Wake County schools has developed a database used to determine the best locations for future schools.
“Basically what they did [at ITRE] was establish a database system that could be used to capture land-use planning for the different municipalities,” Dulaney said.
The database looks at the future use for a particular plot of land and the number of houses to allocate Wake County’s projections for the student population growth rate.
“Right now it might be farm land, but the Cary long-range plan might see that being used as medium-density residential,” Dulaney said. “We determine where those students are going to be and where those school sites are going to be.”
Sites are translated as large circles on a map, representing the general area where a school would be best located.
“Those circles have now been shared with the Cary municipal planning staff so they can be looking at, in Cary’s long-range plan, where does Cary anticipate having homes so when the schools are needed land can be acquired,” Dulaney said.
Dulaney said that the county has been able to locate school sites in far west Cary, but that land between Cary and Morrisville is harder to come by.
“Both Cary and Morrisville have lots of housing that’s been approved that hasn’t been built yet, but school sites are not easy to find,” he said.
Weinbrecht said he hopes to be able to help the county.
“Hopefully we can land bank in areas that are near [their projected sites],” Weinbrecht said.
He also did not rule out the possibility of sharing facilities with the school system — such as the situation with the Middle Creek Community Center and Middle Creek High — to benefit both Cary residents and the school system.
“We partnered with the schools in the past to share park land or a gym,” Weinbrecht said. “That helps the school system save costs and it’s nice to have multiple uses. It’s efficient. It’s great to have a facility used more often.”
