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What happens when a town decides to write its own story instead of letting others write it for them? Cary’s journey shows how vision and intentional leadership, through a culture where anyone can lead from their seat, can transform not just a community but the way we all think about what’s possible within local government.

The Top of the Arc: Cocreating a More Innovative, Adaptive, and Effective Local Government (Radius Book Group, 2025) is our contribution to the profession. Though our town manager, Sean R. Stegall, ICMA-CM, is credited as the author, the copyright belongs to the town because the voices in the book—council, staff, and residents—are what make it Cary’s story.

Like most of you, we work within a council–manager form of government. Our elected council sets policy, and nearly 1,300 staff carry it out. Cary sits in the heart of North Carolina’s Research Triangle and is often recognized among the nation’s best places to live. We’re grateful for those honors, but accolades don’t tell the full story.

For the past 17 years, Cary has maintained a steady population growth rate of 2 to 2.5% annually. That stability followed decades of hypergrowth that saw the town expand from 1,000 residents in the 1960s to more than 190,000 today. The shift from expansion to maturity brought new realities: redevelopment pressures, tougher choices, and at times humbling results at the ballot box. For a community once fueled by rapid growth, it meant learning to evolve differently.

It was in this context that council launched Imagine Cary in 2012, the most ambitious planning process in our history. Thousands of residents joined with council and staff to shape a single vision through 2040. With over 60 nationalities represented and one in four residents born outside the United States, creating a shared pathway forward was both daunting and energizing.

In 2016, council charged our town manager with making that vision real. Out of that challenge came a phrase we’ve carried ever since: “We are creating the local government that doesn’t exist.” At first, it was casual, but people responded. Some heard a call to aim higher. Others pictured a government so seamless it hardly registered. What mattered most was the permission it gave us all to imagine a government that could be more adaptive, more human, and more effective than what we had known.

That spirit, and the culture we built together through the OneCary Toolkit, ultimately gave us the courage to share our story in The Top of the Arc.

From Vision to Transformation

“The launch of Cary 311 was a confirmation of this. Staff developed new skills, got new titles, and worked with new equipment. … [That] paid off with increases in confidence and pride and a sense of empowerment.” —From Chapter 10, “The Top of the Arc and The Importance of Reinvention”

The first expressions of Imagine Cary weren’t abstract policies but projects that reshaped how our community works and lives:

Cary 311 

A 311 system typically functions as a call center for non-emergency needs. We wanted ours to be something more. Today, each case is owned by a member of our citizen advocate team until it is resolved. Often the Salesforce case becomes a cross-department collaboration across all levels, reminding us that trust is built as much among colleagues as with residents.

Downtown Cary Park

What began as a modest greenspace idea two decades ago grew into a $70 million civic heart launched in 2023. Hosting nearly 500 events a year—from fitness classes to art displays and concerts to festivals—it has redefined Downtown Cary as a destination and given our community a new center of gravity. Its Nest play area, named the nation’s best public playground by USA TODAY readers in 2025, is only part of the story.

Fenton

For decades, Cary was defined by single-family neighborhoods and a “drive-through” downtown. Then, on 92 acres at our eastern gateway from Interstate 40, council approved the town’s first vertical mixed-use district. Nearly $1 billion in investment has created a new regional draw with a walkable hub of housing, retail, offices, and public space. More than an economic project, it marked the moment Cary embraced urban form and a willingness to grow up as well as out.

Each of these projects stretched us with council making bold choices, staff providing the expertise to carry them out, and residents trusting their government to deliver something beyond the ordinary.

When the Work Gets Harder

“It’s easy to view referendums in up-or-down victories or defeats. But none of the referendum projects, which were inspired by the Imagine Cary Community Plan, have been completely wiped off the table forever. Only the proposed specific funding mechanism that would have propelled the projects forward was stopped.” —From Chapter 8, “Changing the Horizons”

In 2024, Cary voters rejected $590 million in bond referendums for parks, recreation, and housing. For decades, bonds had passed by wide margins. This time, after a tax increase and earlier bond approvals, many residents shared they had simply reached their limit. Voter fatigue was real.

For a community used to strong support on these referendums, it was humbling. But it also was clarifying. As Cary has matured, we’ve learned that choices get harder, not easier. And that lesson isn’t only for elected officials or senior managers. In our culture, anyone can lead, whether in a council seat, a crew leader’s role, or through influence without a formal title. Leadership is about recognizing when a community says, “not now,” and responding with candor, adaptability, and persistence.

Why Culture Became the Strategy

“Aiming for excellence and then achieving that goal requires dreaming and analyzing, investing and taking risks, and embracing responsibility. Repeating that process requires building a culture that embodies and sustains our commitment to excellence, to staying at the top of the arc.” —From Chapter 7, “Consensus Building and Development”

Projects can change landscapes, but culture sustains excellence. The values shared in our OneCary Toolkit, detailed in The Top of the Arc, remind us that innovation doesn’t come from a handbook but from empowering staff to lead at every level. One of our favorite commitments is simple: “We reserve the right to get smarter as we go.” That mindset has freed us to adapt, to learn publicly, and to evolve without apology.

An Invitation

Across America, redevelopment pressures, financial limits, and rising expectations are testing local governments. Cary’s story is not a prescription, but an encouragement: we’re all capable of creating the local government that doesn’t exist when we choose to cocreate with our elected officials, our staff, our residents—and one another.

The Top of the Arc is Cary’s story told through the voices of past and present councilmembers, our staff, and our community. We share it not as an ending, but as an invitation to peers across the profession. Sustaining excellence isn’t about preserving what is. It’s about creating what could be.

Read Cary’s journey in The Top of the Arc, and then share your own, so together we can keep creating the local government that doesn’t exist.