A NOMA Home Featured in Country Living!

The North Main Neighborhood (NOMA) has the finest collection of historic homes in the North Main Historic District, which runs through the center of the neighborhood along the N. Main Street corridor and one block to the east.  We have a handful, like any neighborhood, of homes for sale here.  But unlike other neighborhoods, one of our homes-for-sale is featured in Country Living Magazine's online edition!

Check out the article, 3 Amazingly Inexpensive Victorian Homes for Sale
here:

http://www.countryliving.com/homes/real-estate/affordable-Victorian-houses-for-sale

We love that they've noted that this pretty, painted lady is move-in ready, so you can relax on the front porch the evening of your closing!  And that the circa 1893 Mary Steele Scales home is located within the boundaries of Salisbury’s North Main Historic District, which means it’s surrounded by more charming old homes.  But we also know that living in NOMA means we are close to EVERYTHING ~ parks, shopping, restaurants, galleries . . . you name it.  We love living here and we love our beautiful homes!

You can read more about the Mary Steele Scales home and some of the other historic homes for sale in the North Main Neighborhood by following these links:

The Mary Steele Scales House, 126 E. Steele Street:

• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2013/11/your-chance-to-own-1800s-victorian-home.html 
• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2013/07/the-historic-1893-mary-steele-scales.html
• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2013/07/antique-vintage-and-historic-home-for.html
• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2014/07/beautifully-restored-victorian-home.html

The J.R. Crawford House, 826 N. Main Street:

• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2014/07/circa-1900-victorian-pivotal-property.html

The Ramsey-Voss House, 927 N. Main Street:

• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2013/08/rise-above-it-all-privacy-and-charm-927.html 
• http://www.realestatesalisbury.net/2014/06/1928-craftsman-in-artists-eye-139900-in.html

These, and more, are wonderful opportunities to live in NOMA! Check them out!

Hey Friends & Neighbors!

It looks like NOMA will be ramping up for meeting once again! Stay tuned for meeting dates! The neighborhood is also using a new communication website that seems to be helping us. Go to www.NextDoor.com and look for the NOMA - North Main Neighborhood & sign up!  There is no cost ~ just a user name and password.

We're very excited to get the neighborhood group rekindled!  We look forward to seeing you real soon!
 

Keep North Main Beautiful! Fall Spruce Up is Coming!

Help keep NOMA beautiful! 

Fall Spruce-Up is coming the week of October 20-24th.  It's a perfect opportunity to clean up the neighborhood!

The City will supply us with gloves and garbage bags if anyone would like to form a specific clean-up group for a targeted area. 

Place your 'Spruce-Up' garbage at the curb on the normal trash pick up day.  No construction material is permitted but if you have such to dispose of, please call (704) 638-5260 and they can help you make arrangements for pickup!

Help Address Housing Issues in the North Main Neighborhood! October 16th ~ 4:30 ~ at City Hall!

Be sure to come to this important workshop to address issues for our neighborhood and others!

Share this with your friends and neighbors and put this important workshop on your calendar!

Be sure to RSVP by calling (704) 638-5240.

Saturday ~ November 23rd ~ Bridge Painting!!

The city of Salisbury Street Division and Historic Salisbury Foundation members and volunteers will team up on Saturday, November 23 from 9 a.m. to noon to paint two bridges located in historic districts near downtown.  If you can come help, please do. This might be something children would enjoy....For years to come, every time you cross the bridge, your child would say, "I painted this bridge!"

The Shober Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 as part of the Ellis Street Graded School Historic District. This has been the location of a bridge since the North Carolina Railroad created the line going west in 1857, and is named for Colonel Francis Shober, a North Carolina congressman in the post-Civil War era. The East Fisher Street Bridge, located in the 200 block, is part of the Brooklyn-South Square Historic District. Both bridges recently underwent extensive repairs. 
 
Each bridge will receive a protective coating of white wood stain on the handrails and posts to help preserve he wood, thereby extending the life of the recent repairs. Documentary photographs from the mid-1900s show that the handrails along the Shober Bridge were once painted white.

Both bridges will be closed to vehicular traffic through 2 p.m. In the event of rain or inclement weather, the project will be postponed until Saturday, Dec. 7.  We'll only be working on the street-level rails. Materials will be provided.

Volunteers are asked to arrive at either bridge and materials will be provided. Those interested in volunteering to assist with this project may call the Street Division at 704-638-5251.

N Main & 11th Street Intersection Improvements ~ Coming Soon!!

A small pilot project has been taking off behind the scenes. Earlier in the year, Sue McHugh, Sean Meyers, Tim & Laurie Klaus, Andrew Waters, and Jenni & Brian Pfaff, met with city staff, Historic Salisbury Foundation director Brian Davis, and representatives from the Community Appearance Commission to kick off a small NOMA Main Street beautification project. Here’s where we stand: 

Lynn Raker, Senior Planner with the City of Salisbury, has been working with other city staff and DOT to get streetscape prep work completed so we can “beautify” our 11th St intersection. Lynn has preliminary approval for 2 raised corner planters on commercial properties south of 11th St. We’re looking into the possibility of taking down the empty building across from the market at 11th street, the old A.T.I.C structure. The quote for the A.T.I.C. demolition is $10,000 including finish grade, seed and straw, and Lynn is working with DOT on replacement of collapsed storm drain at curb line. She has not yet talked with property owner, Mr. Helderman, about his desire to proceed with the demo, but that’s next. Long story short, improvements at this intersection are step-by-step, abut we’re moving forward and Lynn will keep us posted on progress. 

A proposed part of this project was to perhaps paint a house along the N. Main Street corridor. If there are owner-occupied properties on N. Main in need of repair/paint, where owner qualifies as low-moderate income and is willing to sign lien, the Community Development Corp (CDC) has funds to make the repairs. It’s a bid process, so volunteer labor would not be needed unless we just want to participate as community building event. Do you know any likely candidates? 2-3 of these could make a big difference to our Main Street corridor. We were originally looking at only 1-story houses, but we’re now told that a 2-story house is no problem. The CDC can bid out the work as specified, so if painting is to be done by volunteers, that would not be in the bid. 

We’ll need to gather up volunteers to focus on the streetscape work at 11th Street. We don’t have a date yet, but we’ll post as soon as we know!

https://nomanorthmain.nextdoor.com 

themainneighborhood@gmail.com

THIS WEDNESDAY!!! March 13th

Public Kick-Off Meeting for the project to revise and update the Salisbury Historic District Design Guidelines, affecting properties in these local Historic Districts: 

• West Square 
• Brooklyn South Square 
• Ellis Street Graded School 
• North Main (NOMA) 
• Downtown Salisbury

Wednesday, March 13
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Salisbury City Hall
City Council Chamber
217 South Main St.
 
Property owners and residents are invited to participate in discussion about preservation issues and to offer feedback about the design guidelines. The Historic Preservation Commission follows these guidelines when issuing Certificates of Appropriateness for exterior changes to structures and sites located in historic districts.

Please come to this meeting if you can!

Successful 'Urban Forest' Clean~Up Today!!

The North Main Neighborhood hosted a clean~up for our "Urban Forest" at the corner of E. Steele Street and Railroad Street this morning.  Historic Salisbury Foundation, who owns the large wooded lot, petitioned volunteers from all over the community to help us clear this neglected and overgrown lot.  WOW!  Take a drive by and you'll see the difference!!!  

Our neighbors to the north and west may not have realized what a problem this area has been, but there have been homeless folks camping in there, and free enterprise has been thriving in this little hidden forest!  With much of the underbrush removed (we still have a ways to go!), the hiding places are now being eliminated.

Folks gathered at 9am this morning with chain saws, loppers, rakes, and other implements of destruction to take on the brambles, brush, campsites, and garbage that have been accumulating here for years.  The woods is much larger than we originally thought ~ it's about 45,000 square feet or just over an acre. The easiest way to visualize the size of this lot is to picture a standard American football field from sideline to sideline ~ an area of 90.75 yards.  A typical residential lot might measure 0.15 - 0.50 acres.  So you can imagine the breadth of this project!

More volunteers from the Historic Salisbury Foundation are scheduled to return to our 'Urban Forest' this week to do some weed control spraying (sorry purists, but the brambles were FIERCE and they'll be back all to soon without some control!), and to chop some more vines and dead trees.  We will be gathering our own volunteers out there again very soon to try to complete more of the work and make this an attractive part of our neighborhood.  We can't do it without your support!

Speaking of support....can each of you ask your neighbors if they are on this mailing list?  It would be nice to be reaching as many people as we can in our 40 block neighborhood with its over 400 households.  We know we are just reaching the tip of the iceberg and we're confident that many more would love to support this neighborhood if they were just in the communication loop!  Can we get you to forward more neighborhood contacts to us?  THANKS!!!

NOMA Project Dates: March 9th and April 27th!!!

Hello North Main Neighbors & Friends! 

Representatives from the NOMA (The North Main Neighborhood) and the City of Salisbury's Community Appearance Commission met Monday February 18th to discuss possible improvements to the appearance of the North Main Street corridor.  The City has been receiving complaints as to Main Street's appearance, and as North Main Street is the last remaining residential corridor into the City of Salisbury, some attention is kindly being given to help us upgrade this section of our neighborhood.

Proposed were the following improvements:

• A possible improvement to the lot where the old gas station stood at the southeast corner of E. 11th Street and N. Main Street.
• Possible planters at the 4-corners at the intersection of 11th Street and N. Main Street.
• Painting of one home (this home will need to be in reasonable condition, owner-occupied, and a one-story dwelling)

We also discussed cleaning up our "urban forest" at the corner of Railroad Street and E. Steele Street. While not along the N. Main Street corridor, this wooded area is problematic for the neighborhood and its owners, the Historic Salisbury Foundation, have kindly agreed to help clean this area up, clearing the brush away to give us a cleaner and more visible green space.

The success of these projects hinges on our ability to rally volunteers for these projects.  Will each of you please start talking about this to your neighbors and friends?

The clean-up of the Railroad St/Steele St woods is scheduled for Saturday March 9th. Volunteers need only SHOW UP between 9 am and 12 noon, with gloves, sturdy shoes or boots, and if they would like to bring any loppers or other landscape tools, this would be appreciated.  The City and the HSF will provide other heavy-duty brush removal equipment.

We additionally discussed the potential to add some street~scaping to the old Duke Power building in our small commercial section on the bend roughly between 12th and 14th streets.

The plant and/or paint day is tentatively scheduled for April 27th....but please stay tuned for confirmation and more details.

Thank you in advance for helping to support these improvements to our neighborhood!

Salisbury's Historic Grant Program Suspended This Year!

For close to ten years, the City of Salisbury has been able to offer matching grants to help historic district property owners with basic exterior maintenance and repairs.  In addition to Historic Preservation Incentive grants for residential areas, two additional grant programs have been available for commercial properties.  This year, faced with budget constraints that meant the possibility of cuts to vital services, The city Council was not able to fund these important programs.  However, we are hopeful that funding can be reinstated in the next city budget. 

The Historic Preservation Incentive Grants were offered to those historic districts within Salisbury city limits that fall under a local historic designation.  There are five local historic districts in Salisbury:

• Brooklyn South Square
• Ellis Street Graded School 
• North Main Historic District
• West Square
• Downtown Salisbury

Not all of the North Main neighborhood (NOMA) is in the North Main Historic District.  The neighborhood is bounded by the Norfolk Southern Railway at its east and south boundaries, N. Jackson Street to the west, and the Spencer Town Line at the north border.  The North Main Historic District lies along both sides of N. Main Street from the 600 block to the 1700 block, and one block to the east.  The North Main Neighborhood Association supports ALL of the interests of the neighborhood, historic or otherwise.

Watch city updates for whether the Historic Preservation Grant Incentives will be reinstated in 2013.  You can also contact:

Janet Gapen 704.638.5230
jgape@salisburync.gov

Community Appearance Representative to Meet with NOMA Representatives!

At the City's September Community Appearance Commission meeting, held the first Wednesday of each month at 4PM in City Council Chambers, letters from two Salisbury citizens were read to commissioners that offered complaints about how the North Main section of the city, the main residential corridor and entry to Salisbury,  has been ignored by the City and is in need of attention.  We tend to agree!  We were pleased and proud to benefit from new sidewalks on W. Miller and N. Jackson Streets as a part of the Fit Community Grant, and we were especially grateful when the City used use that same block to plant flowering crab apple trees as part of the Arbor Day celebration two years ago....but since then the interest seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Due to this communication the City recently received about our neighborhood, Barbara Perry, Chairperson of the Community Appearance Commission, will soon be interested in talking to a small group of representatives from NOMA for our input.  Ms. Perry was unaware but reminded that an entire North Main Small Area Improvement Plan had been approved by City Council in July of 2007 that indeed was a product of the voice of the community.  Many of you may have participated in that plan through a series of meetings that were held at the City Park Recreation Center through 2006 and 2007.  The North Main Plan, that included pocket parks, crosswalks, landscaping, and street parking, has never been implemented, even incrementally, due to reported lack of funds.

If you are interested in being a representative of NOMA when Ms Perry approaches us, please contact NOMA at themainneighborhood@gmail.com, or call Sue McHugh at 704.577.9965. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan, please contact Diana Moghrabi at dmogh@salisburync.gov.

Salisbury's New “One-Stop Shop” for Development Services

The Development Services division of the City of Salisbury's Community Planning Services (the “Planning Department”) has successfully completed its move to the first floor of the City Office Building at 132 N. Main Street! 

This new “One-Stop Shop” for development services combines several functions of the development process into one location, including planning, zoning, business licensing, FOG coordination/compliance/inspections, Fire Marshal coordination/compliance/inspections, as well as a satellite office for Rowan County Building Code Enforcement.

With this recent move and consolidation of services, the following individuals can now be found at this location:

·        Rick Barkley, Fire Marshal
·        Teresa Barringer, F.O.G. Coordinator
·        Trey Cleaton, Senior Planner
·        Dale Drye, Rowan County Building Code Enforcement
·        Judy Jordan, Sr. Administrative Assistant
·        Preston Mitchell, Planning & Development Services Manager
·        David Phillips, Zoning Administrator
·        Patty Shuping, Business Licensing Officer

Please feel free to check out the newly remodeled space. The new “One-Stop Shop” is a consolidated office for development services and the processes involved in development permitting and inspections - only the staff/services mentioned above operate within this new location.

NOMA Not Selected for BlockWork 2012

We were deeply disappointed not to have the North Main Neigbhorhood (NOMA) selected for this year's BlockWork program offered by the City of Salisbury and United Way.

NOMA submitted the 1200 block of N. Church Street and the 900 block of N. Jackson Street.  Knowing that both blocks meet the requirements of a mix of owner occupied and rental homes, in an area that was safe for a number of crews to work in the area, we thought these blocks represented the type of work that was done on Make a Difference Day in the 200-300 blocks of S. Shaver Street in 2011. Neither block was located in the North Main Historic District, and therefore would not be limited by Historic Preservation guidelines.

The BlockWork Committee received 12 applications for the BlockWork program, and chose the 1000 Block of South Fulton Street, saying it was a feasible mix of rental and owner-occupied homes, has a good deal of commercial presence, and has a strong support system from the neighborhood. We believe this is the main reason this block was selected...that and it's visibility along the Fulton Street corridor, which is in a National Historic District but not in the local Fulton Heights historic district.  The committee will come up with a unifying theme, and will do a walk of the S. Fulton block to see what the project might include and what materials might need to be required.

BlockWork is scheduled for Saturday October 27th, which coincides with United Way's Make a Difference Day. The City of Salisbury was awarded a national honor for the BlockWork program in 2011.

We hope to see many volunteers out on Fulton Street on BlockWork Saturday.  We'll submit again next year and keep our fingers crossed that it will be NOMA's turn!!

Neighborhood Leaders Alliance meeting ~ Thursday, Sept 27th ~ 4PM

The City of Salisbury's Community Appearance Commission invites NOMA residents to the next Neighborhood Leaders Alliance meeting on Thursday, September 27th, at 4PM in City Hall Council Chambers at 217 South Main Street.

Among other items, the Neighborhood Leaders Alliance will discuss the upcoming BlockWork project, the work plan for the new Housing Advocacy Commission, and the proposed task force to address nuisance animals.  If you are interested in serving on the task force, you mail fill out an online application byt going to the Boards and Commissions tab at www.salisburync.gov.

We hope to see a big turn-out of NOMA neighbors at this meeting!

See you then!

Free Workshop on Housing and Legal Issues

Want to learn more about landlord and tenant laws, rights and responsibilities?  What kind of actions constitute housing discrimination?

Please consider attending this free informative workshop 4:30 – 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 20, 2012, where officials from state and regional agencies will discuss these issues and respond to questions. Dinner will be provided. Please call to RSVP as seating is limited.

The workshop is appropriate for members of civic boards and commissions, organizations that work to provide housing, bankers, neighborhood groups, real estate agents/brokers, property owners or managers & tenants, persons with disabilities and advocates, or anyone who wants to learn more about these complex issues.

With any questions, please contact:

Janet Gapen

Senior Planner

Community Planning Services - City of Salisbury

PO Box 479, Salisbury, NC  28145-0479

PH: 704-638-5230

www.salisburync.gov