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The Cary Town Council agreed Tuesday night to permanently preserve land purchased by the former town manager without their knowledge as natural open space.
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The town bought the land at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road for about $1 million under former Town Manager Sean Stegall.
Mayor Harold Weinbrecht had proposed exploring a sale, while Mayor Pro Tem Lori Bush supported keeping the land as open space. But by Tuesday evening, that split had disappeared as council members coalesced around preservation.
Council member Sarika Bansal, who had seconded Weinbrecht’s proposal, pushed during the meeting to make “open space” explicit in the final motion. Council member Carissa Kohn-Johnson pushed to add “natural” after staff explained that “open space” could simply mean undeveloped land. She said she did not want a mowed lawn or a manicured place to play soccer.
Weinbrecht summed up the emerging consensus: “I don’t think anybody’s saying sell it.” He said he originally proposed selling because of concerns about how the land had been purchased. A July state auditor investigation found Stegall bought the properties despite a staff recommendation against the purchase and without informing the full Town Council.
Weinbrecht also said the council had received “a lot of feedback” asking that the land remain open space and said that, if it chose preservation, he wanted it made permanent.
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On Sept. 1, Bansal wrote that she wanted to explore whether Cary could recover taxpayer money from the properties and redirect it to other priorities. She told The News & Observer after Tuesday’s meeting that she seconded Weinbrecht’s item because she wanted more information, residents’ perspectives and accountability over how the land was acquired.
During the meeting, she said that if Cary kept the land, her “ideal choice” was open-space preservation with a deed restriction. “If it’s an open space, it should not be redeveloped in the future,” she later told The N&O.
Council member Brittany Richards said selling the land to correct problems with its purchase felt like “two wrongs don’t make a right.” For a heavily wooded parcel like this one, she said, “open space is going to win for me every time.”
Council member Michelle Craig also raised questions about the land’s history. The Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel has told the town it believes the former Cary Colored School may have stood on one of the town-owned parcels, though town staff said that has not yet been confirmed. Craig suggested the Historic Preservation Commission help investigate the site’s historical significance.
The council has not yet adopted the legal mechanism that would make the preservation permanent. Staff will return with options for how to do that.
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