Cary Commercial Parking Lots

PARKING LOTS

FIX THE PARKING LOTS

dessicated tree — This is a typical tree in the parking lot of Parkway Pointe Shopping Center, after the Town of Cary zoning compliance office deemed it in compliance with the Land Development Ordinance. The tree, a maple, is at least 28 years old. Had it been planted correctly and nurtured properly, it would be at least twice as tall and have a canopy three times as wide. (Click to expand.) Our Town will never approach the beauty of the towns of France, Germany, and Switzerland unless we persuade the Town to enforce our laws.

Just about all of the commercial parking lots in Cary have improperly planted and incorrectly nurtured trees. The trees are desiccated and ugly. The provide little or no benefit to humans or wildlife. The lots are heat islands from which every raindrop that falls on them becomes stormwater runoff. The main point is that the trees create an appearance of neglect and indifference. They make Cary look like a town that does not care enough about its public appearance to require commercial properties to maintain healthy trees. That is not a reflection on Cary’s residents; it is a reason for residents to demand better of the Town.

In June of 2023, I filed a 311 Complaint against Parkway Pointe Shopping Center, located at the intersection of Old Apex Road and Cary Parkway. I chose this lot because its trees were typical of Cary – stunted and ugly, and because it was near my home and thus easily watched. My hope was that the Town would require the owner of the lot to live up to its obligation to maintain its trees in compliance with the Town's Land Development Ordinance (LDO) that it took on when Town Council approved the request to change the zoning to allow the construction of the shopping center.

The 311 Complaint can be seen here. The images in the complaint show the ugliness of Parkway Pointe Shopping Center's trees.

I had hoped that, when the Town required this one shopping center to comply with the law and its obligation, that the rest of the shopping centers in Cary would then understand that they too would have to bring their parking lots into compliance with the law.

This didn't happen. The Town's zoning compliance office notified the shopping center of its deficiencies. The shopping center brought in a landscape crew to dig away some of the volcano mulching around the trunks of the trees (although not nearly down to grade level as required by the LDO) and to cut away the dead limbs in the crowns of the trees. The Town then deemed the shopping center in compliance with the law.

I disagreed with the finding, and protested that the LDO required, by its specific terms, that the trees be maintained such that they are "healthy." There is no way on God's green earth that these trees are healthy. Go see them for yourself.

The practical result of the Town's deeming the trees healthy is that no commercial parking lot owner will ever be required to maintain healthy trees, and that we citizens (and those who come after us) will have to suffer the ugliness of stunted desiccated trees, increased stormwater runoff, dirtier air, and extremely hot vehicles after shopping in what are Cary's now six-month summers, forevermore.

I respectfully suggest that we citizens ask our Council representatives to require the Town to properly interpret and uniformly enforce the LDO.