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Council Committee

Town of Cary · Economic Development Committee
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 5:15 pm · Conference Room 11130, 316 N. Academy Street, Cary Town Hall, Cary, NC 27513

Committee meeting Budget and appropriationsEconomic development incentivesLand conversion and large development

Agenda document Full packet Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What's on this agenda

Cary's Economic Development Committee hears the interim town manager's remarks, then a budget presentation ahead of the manager's recommended budget. The assistant town manager gives a development update and the Cary Chamber of Commerce president delivers the quarterly economic development report. The agenda closes with open dialogue among committee members; no votes are listed.

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

Interim Town Manager Russ Overton and Assistant Town Manager Scot Berry walked the committee through early FY2027 budget planning, including how Cary's tax rate and staffing compare with peer municipalities, then led a quadratic-voting exercise on ten potential budget priorities. The minutes list the results in this order: community safety, high-performing staff, operational efficiency, new capital investment, fiscal responsibility, maintaining facilities, maintaining service levels, service excellence, affordability and environmental stewardship. Staff will carry the results into the manager's recommended budget and the full council's May 14 quarterly meeting.

Berry reported five single-family rezonings submitted in the quarter, all west of Davis Drive, plus 33 development plans and 76 residential permits. Chamber of Commerce President Mark Lawson's quarterly report listed seven active recruitment projects with a potential 3,170 jobs and $578 million in potential investment, figures the report frames as projections. One prospect, a life sciences and health care chemistry solutions supplier the report did not name, visited a proposed Cary site, citing an estimated $300 million initial investment and 600,000 square feet, with a location decision expected by September 2026. Hitachi Energy announced plans for a $10 million Power Electronics Center it expects to open in late 2026 or early 2027, projected to create 150 jobs.

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 (5)

Presentation · 3Staff or committee report · 1Discussion item · 1
  1. 1. Interim Town Manager's Remarks
    Staff or committee report
    Speaker: R uss Overton, Interim Town Manager
  2. 2. Budget Presentation
    Presentation Budget and appropriations
    Speaker: Russ Overton, Interim Town Manager
  3. 3. Development Update
    Presentation Budget and appropriationsLand conversion and large development
    S peaker: Sco t Berry, Assistant Town Manager
  4. 4. Quarterly Chamber Report
    Presentation Budget and appropriationsEconomic development incentives
    Speaker: Mark Lawson, Cary Chamber of Commerce P resident
  5. 5. Committee Member Dialogue
    Discussion item
    The minutes record no discussion under this item.

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