Town of Cary: Preserve 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Rd.
The Issue
Dear neighbors, please consider adding your name to this petition to show your support for preserving downtown Cary's little enchanted forest!
Address to Cary Town Council in response to Mayor Weinbrecht's blog post entitled "Sell Properties at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road" posted August 23, 2026. Click here to read the blog.
Casey Midkiff
August 27, 2026
The mayor recently posted on his blog about the potential sale of property at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Rd. This property is a large swath of wooded land between Cary Elementary and Shirley Dr. It is my understanding that this property was purchased by former town manager Sean Stegall without the permission of town council for a little over one million dollars.
While I absolutely agree that transparency and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars is extremely important, I would like to ask that the council consider some of the other priorities of citizens in this matter. From the wording on the blog, it’s clear that selling this land would be primarily a face-saving measure after the devastating audit, but I believe this could be an opportunity to show the public that you hear their concerns about overdevelopment and that you prioritize natural and historic preservation.
This land is one of the last natural areas in downtown Cary. It is pristine. The pine trees create an incredible canopy, providing shade and habitat for innumerable wild critters. My home on Shirley Drive is adjacent, and in these woods we have seen deer, opossum, raccoons, squirrels, box turtles, rabbits, and even coyotes, if you can believe it. I have an app on my phone that identifies birds by their calls, and I have a record of 21 songbirds in these woods. Additionally, I’ve recorded three different types of woodpeckers, several red-tailed hawks, and one amazing, majestic barred owl. If you walk along the neighboring Higgins greenway in summer evenings, the woods are teeming with fireflies - a wonder of nature that we all remember from our childhoods but that we struggle to share with our own children because of their depleted numbers.
Speaking of the greenway, my neighbors and I are puzzled over why the town would build a beautiful greenway and then almost immediately allow it to be un-greened by development. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like giving us a gift and then taking it away.
As Cary continues to grow and change, many of us are reaching back to the town’s colorful history and making sure its roots are understood and preserved. The land in question is the original site of Cary's first African American church, founded in 1883. The remnants of this church can be found along the greenway corridor. We ask that you do more to commemorate this site rather than allow it to be destroyed.
In the blog post, the mayor admits that the sale could potentially be at a loss to the town. It seems evident that trying to offload it would indeed be tricky and almost definitely not lucrative. The forest hides very rough terrain and a steep gully that collects stormwater. This land would be incredibly difficult and expensive to improve enough for development, likely requiring a reduced price to make it attractive to developers. And of course we would lose drainage around our properties, something that so many of our neighbors struggle with after the clear-cutting for the greenway.
One of the mayor’s regrets about the purchase of this property is the lack of opportunity for public input. Let’s do it right this time. I’d like to take the lead on assessing and providing for you citizen response to this potential sale. Since I just recently learned about this, I’d like some time to collect some comments and some data to help you and the council make a decision that reflects the will of the public and not just the desperation of town government in the wake of Stegall’s foolishness.
In short, don’t make a big mistake even bigger. Protect this downtown treasure.
1,168
The Issue
Dear neighbors, please consider adding your name to this petition to show your support for preserving downtown Cary's little enchanted forest!
Address to Cary Town Council in response to Mayor Weinbrecht's blog post entitled "Sell Properties at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road" posted August 23, 2026. Click here to read the blog.
Casey Midkiff
August 27, 2026
The mayor recently posted on his blog about the potential sale of property at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Rd. This property is a large swath of wooded land between Cary Elementary and Shirley Dr. It is my understanding that this property was purchased by former town manager Sean Stegall without the permission of town council for a little over one million dollars.
While I absolutely agree that transparency and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars is extremely important, I would like to ask that the council consider some of the other priorities of citizens in this matter. From the wording on the blog, it’s clear that selling this land would be primarily a face-saving measure after the devastating audit, but I believe this could be an opportunity to show the public that you hear their concerns about overdevelopment and that you prioritize natural and historic preservation.
This land is one of the last natural areas in downtown Cary. It is pristine. The pine trees create an incredible canopy, providing shade and habitat for innumerable wild critters. My home on Shirley Drive is adjacent, and in these woods we have seen deer, opossum, raccoons, squirrels, box turtles, rabbits, and even coyotes, if you can believe it. I have an app on my phone that identifies birds by their calls, and I have a record of 21 songbirds in these woods. Additionally, I’ve recorded three different types of woodpeckers, several red-tailed hawks, and one amazing, majestic barred owl. If you walk along the neighboring Higgins greenway in summer evenings, the woods are teeming with fireflies - a wonder of nature that we all remember from our childhoods but that we struggle to share with our own children because of their depleted numbers.
Speaking of the greenway, my neighbors and I are puzzled over why the town would build a beautiful greenway and then almost immediately allow it to be un-greened by development. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like giving us a gift and then taking it away.
As Cary continues to grow and change, many of us are reaching back to the town’s colorful history and making sure its roots are understood and preserved. The land in question is the original site of Cary's first African American church, founded in 1883. The remnants of this church can be found along the greenway corridor. We ask that you do more to commemorate this site rather than allow it to be destroyed.
In the blog post, the mayor admits that the sale could potentially be at a loss to the town. It seems evident that trying to offload it would indeed be tricky and almost definitely not lucrative. The forest hides very rough terrain and a steep gully that collects stormwater. This land would be incredibly difficult and expensive to improve enough for development, likely requiring a reduced price to make it attractive to developers. And of course we would lose drainage around our properties, something that so many of our neighbors struggle with after the clear-cutting for the greenway.
One of the mayor’s regrets about the purchase of this property is the lack of opportunity for public input. Let’s do it right this time. I’d like to take the lead on assessing and providing for you citizen response to this potential sale. Since I just recently learned about this, I’d like some time to collect some comments and some data to help you and the council make a decision that reflects the will of the public and not just the desperation of town government in the wake of Stegall’s foolishness.
In short, don’t make a big mistake even bigger. Protect this downtown treasure.
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Petition created on August 28, 2026