Immigration facility gets public airing
Federal officials delay site selection amid opposition.
Published: Jul 11, 2011 06:45 PM
Modified: Jul 11, 2011 06:50 PM
BY ANDREW KENNEY, Staff Writer

CARY - Federal officials will meet with residents this week about an immigration enforcement facility that could land in a west Cary shopping center that borders a neighborhood.

The Thursday meeting comes as the federal government takes a three-week hiatus to address community concerns about its possible selection of a Cary-area site for a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency office.

General Services Administration and Department of Homeland Security officials will speak and take questions at Green Hope Elementary School in what is expected to be a contentious meeting.

"They're going to take a lot of heat when they get here," said Mark Howard, president of the West Park Homeowners Association.

The vacant grocery store at N.C. 55 and High House Road is one of several locations in the area under consideration for a new ICE and DHS office, said federal officials, who did not disclose details of the other potential sites.

In response to residents' concerns about safety and the site's proximity to neighborhoods, the Cary Town Council passed a resolution June 30 that strongly discouraged ICE from using the Kroger location.

As the public scrutiny intensified, federal representatives said on June 30 that the agency would delay the site selection process, placing it on hold until July 20 in order to hear residents' concerns. .

The meeting will constitute the federal government's most public discussion of its possible plans for the 55,000-square-foot grocery store building.

ICE is looking to consolidate three current Raleigh-area immigration offices. The office would include short-term detention cells for suspected illegal immigrants, federal officials said.

The federal government called for project proposals 20 months ago, and the broker Acquest Development began crafting the final Kroger property plan a year ago. Town officials said they heard no word of the plan until the flier emerged last month, though the town received a request for information about the property's land uses.

Michael Huntress, a representative of Acquest, spoke at the Cary Town Council's meeting two weeks ago.

"We figured that the agency was going to like the location, and as it turns out, they did," he told the council. "What's unfortunate is that you folks have been left in the dark for the last 12 months."

ICE's current Cary office off Evans Road is less than a third the size of the proposed new site and sits further from residences.

Federal officials said the new office would not include external security features like barbed wire and spotlights.

Howard, a leader of StopCaryIceNow.org, said his community is protesting the potential location with a wave of email and phone calls. They live in one of Cary's planned unit developments, which are meant to include retail, recreation and residential uses, among others, in a single plan.

"The bigger issue is that we have a planned community," Howard said. "We thought the town had control, and we expect the government to work with the town."

Carmen Marzella, who owns a Dunkin' Donuts in the same shopping center as the vacant grocery store, thinks the ICE office would hurt his business, even if federal employees enjoy coffee and pastries.

"We intended it to be more of a family location," he said. "We're just afraid that we're going to trade one kind of customer for another."
andy.kenney@nando.com or 919-460-2608

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