Two of the hallmarks of Cary’s national recognition as one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family are good planning and a high level of citizen involvement.  To this end and at the direction of the Town Council, Town of Cary staff, in collaboration with outside consultants, developed an Internet-based tool referred to as the Virtual Interactive Planner (VIP), which provides our citizens and other customers with an interactive program that helps guide them through the Town of Cary development process.  It is designed to help reduce the confusion and intimidation sometimes associated with necessary complex, comprehensive processes like land development. 

VIP allows customers, such as developers, realtors, appraisers, land development consultants and citizens, to enter an address, Property Identification Number (PIN) or Real Estate Identification Number (RID) and select a proposed development from a dropdown menu.  Based on the information obtained, the program  interfaces with multiple layers of the Town's GIS and determines and animates the appropriate path of development.  To appeal to multiple learning styles, customers have a choice of using an animated version or a text-only version.  Both versions (animated or text only) include a wide variety of development-related information such as downloadable applications, fee schedules, definitions and other useful tools.