Purchased by the Town of Cary at former town manager Sean Stegall’s behest in 2024 for just over $1 million, the 1.6 acres at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road are an inconvenient reminder of an era the town council would probably rather forget. Stegall approved the purchase without the council’s knowledge, and it didn’t come to light until after his resignation amid multiple investigations. Now, the council needs to figure out what to do with the land.
Mayor Harold Weinbrecht proposed selling the properties in order to reclaim the public funds spent on it.
“A sale would reinforce the principle that major financial decisions deserve full transparency,” he wrote on his blog.
But when the council discussed Weinbrecht’s proposal at its Tuesday evening work session, the prevailing sentiment was that the land should be preserved. The properties, located just south of Cary Elementary near the Higgins Greenway, are wooded and filled with wildlife.
At a late August public comment session, nearby resident Casey Midkiff said she’d seen deer, opossum, box turtles, rabbits, woodpeckers, and red-tailed hawks there. After her comments, Midkiff started a petition to preserve the properties which has garnered 1,300 signatures. The councilmembers took notice.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” said council member Brittany Richards, noting that regardless of how the properties were acquired, the town now has the chance to determine their highest, best use rather than sell them off to a developer who could raze them and put up an office building.
“For a parcel like this that is so heavily treed, open space is going to win for me every time,” Richards said.
Her colleagues—including Weinbrecht and council member Sarika Bansal, who had seconded his proposal to sell the land—quickly and unanimously agreed.
The council is also aware that the properties are close to the spot where Cary’s first Black church once stood, and might include part of the former footprint of Cary’s first school for Black students, which burned down (arson was suspected) in 1935. The council suggested on Tuesday that the volunteer Historic Preservation Commission do more research so the town can consider adding a historical marker or another commemoration of the school.
Town staff will develop recommendations for how best to preserve the properties long-term and bring them back to council for a vote.
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