Developer proposes 38 townhouses next to Cary village hall

A new proposal for a vacant lot next to the Cary village hall is on the table after a previous plan for a 98-unit apartment building was dropped for financial reasons.

Developer Ridgefield Homes wants to build a 38-unit, single-family attached residential community called Ridgefield Park at the northwest corner of Industrial Drive and Reuben Lane.

The plan calls for 15 buildings in all — seven with two units and eight with three units — on the 4.5-acre site. Each unit will be about 1,700 to 1,900 square feet, Jay Dulla of Ridgefield Homes said.

The duplex-style buildings will have 30 end units and eight middle units selling between $350,000 and $375,000, Dulla said. A park site, walking trail with benches and a possible dog run will be part of the development.

Some units will have basements, but developers still are working on the floor plans, Dulla said.

“I’d like to be moving dirt by the fall,” he added.

Dulla previously developed ranch-style homes in the Cimarron subdivision and the Walnut Ridge single-family homes next to Cary-Grove High School.

“He’s got a great record with the village. He’s very easy to work with,” Mayor Mark Kownick said. “He’s a very good representation of the product that we want and that our community is asking for.”

Dulla also is working on Ridgefield Landing, a project with 10 townhouses, at the northeast corner of Route 14 and North Second Street. Dulla requested the village to cover more than $73,000 worth of infrastructure improvements for the project in March. The village board has not voted on the request.

For the Ridgefield Park project, the board has agreed to Dulla’s request they waive the requirements of completing a traffic study, market study, village service demand analysis, off-site utility improvements, drainage plan and open house.

Cary’s comprehensive plan designates the vacant land for industrial or business uses that would “contribute to the economic health of Cary,” according to village documents.

But Kownick said he hears many residents asking for this style of duplex townhouses.

“A lot of people want to stay here in Cary, but they’re aging in places, they say, in the wrong place, and they need something they want to step down into,” he said. “The more opportunities that we could offer our residents so they could stay put, the better.”