Issue link: http://townofcary.uberflip.com/i/791958
CHAPTER 6:SHAPE In order to respond to the challenges and opportuni es facing our community, and to guide future growth within Cary that supports the Town's economic development efforts, efficiently uses exis ng and planned infrastructure, ensures the Town's fiscal health, and maintains the high quality of development found today, the Town's land use and growth policies are: POLICY DIRECTION Policy Policy Intent Policy 1: Distribute Commercial Centers, Commercial Mixed Use Centers, and Destination Centers Across Town Locate Commercial Centers, Commercial Mixed Use Centers, and Destination Centers throughout Town such that they are distributed at regular intervals, and separated geographically by about a mile or so in most cases, so as to avoid continuous retail and nonresidential "strip" development along our major roadways. The intent of this policy is to accommodate the daily shopping and services needs of residents and workers, while at the same time ensuring that Cary avoids continuous "strips" of retail development along our major roadways. Accordingly, the policy recommends that, in most cases, these centers should be distributed throughout Town such that they are separated by about a mile or so as illustrated on the Future Growth Framework Map. The objectives of the policy include: • Provide daily shopping and services needs (such as grocery stores, banking, dry cleaning, etc.) within about ½ to 1 mile of most households. This provides more options to access daily shopping, dining, and services needs via walking, biking, or driving, due to the close proximity to home; • Reduce traffic on major streets by reducing the average length of vehicular trips for shopping and services, and by providing opportunities to make such trips from the neighborhood via local road connections; • Reduce thoroughfare traffic and minimize the number of required lanes on thoroughfares by avoiding continuous strip development; • Improve air quality and energy consumption by enabling shorter trips for shopping and services; • Improve the visual appearance of Cary by avoiding continuous strip development; • Serve as sites of potential future intensification. As Cary continues to grow, these Commercial Centers can become the site of additional growth, so that when greater density is called for, the built form is not an obstacle. 86