As a town and county grow towards each other, leaders from both sides of the line are getting together to try and work on common issues.

Western Cary is one of the fastest-growing areas of the town, right up against the Chatham County line.

In fact, a small percentage of Cary residents actually live in Chatham County.

A subcommittee of Chatham County Commissioners George Lucier and Sally Kost, along with Cary Council Members Julie Robison, Jennifer Robinson and Erv Portman, is meeting Monday night to discuss things such as annexations, Jordan Lake, taxes and other issues.

"I know the folks on the Chatham County Board.  I think they're just as interested as those of us on the Cary Town Council in having good relations; improved relations," said Portman. "Because they had been a bit testy in past years, and that doesn't benefit either of us."

The meeting is open to the public and is taking place at Cary Fire Station #7 on Carpenter-Fire Station Road.

Update, 7:20 p.m. -- One of the first issues on tap also happend to be one of the touchier subjects.

At its last council meeting, Cary leaders voted to extend a moratorium on Chatham County annexations for another 90 days, with one caveat: they want Chatham County to draw up its own moratorium, too.

The wording of the motion even said that it would be annulled if Chatham County did not come up with that good faith match.

Cary council members say it's been four years now, and they're starting to grow weary of extending the moratorium without reciprocity from Chatham County.

Kost and Lucier said that might not be easy; they weren't sure a similar moratorium related just to one part of the county was legal, and said that any annexation requests couldn't be filled in such a short time period, anyway.

Both sides seem willing to work towards middle ground, and said they hope a planned Joint Land Use Plan would settle any differences.

Cary already has one development coming down the pipe with annexation issues, and offered to have Chatham County officials take part in the public comments for that project when the time comes.

Cary council members hope to have a new vote at their next meeting to extend the moratorium for 90 days or the formation of that Joint Land Use Plan, whichever comes first.

Update, 8:05 p.m. -- The next big issue was transportation and land use.

Kost said she's worried that NC 751 is going to end up becoming an informal alternative to the I-540 toll road.

She said Chatham County is hoping to see money available to improve 751 with things like wider shoulders; she also hopes they can work with Cary to develop land use plans to lighten that load.

The problems can't be mitigated by zoning, though, said Portman; people are moving to the area no matter what, and they're going to drive through those roads no matter what.

He said 540 is going to spur a massive amount of development, regardless of what kind of zoning densities or open space Chatham County wants to keep.

"What we're fearful of is more developments like Amberly," said Lucier, referring to a new high-density residential development in western Cary.

The 150 miles of shoreline on Jordan Lake overshadows all these decisions, according to Lucier; he thinks high density developments along streams and other waterways that feed into the lake will hurt one of the county's richest resources.

Robinson suggested that the two work together with their future plans so that Cary can start zoning less-dense as they get closer to the county line, so the density changes can be there, but the differences won't be so sudden.

Both Cary and Chatham County would like to see more office-space development in that area - saying that residential projects by themselves don't help the county very much in terms of tax revenue.

Staff members from both entities will get together and present their findings at the next joint meeting.

Update, 8:35 p.m. -- Members of the joint committee said they felt like they made a lot of headway, and want to keep momentum going - so they've settled on a follow-up meeting at 9 a.m. on June 16, with another scheduled at the same time on July 17 and a third on August 14.

They hope focus the next meeting on staff's comparative analysis of their various ordinances and the land use plan.

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Keep up with the stories Chris Cowperthwaite is working on every day: http://twitter.com/CCowperthwaite.