The North Main Small Area Improvement Plan: Where to Go from Here?

Hello Friends and Neighbors!

Throughout 2006, North Main Neighborhood residents met with City of Salisbury representatives to provide input on how to best implement improvements for the neighborhood.  The city collected loads of data and interpreted it in what is formally called 'The North Main Small Area Improvement Plan'.  The purpose of this Plan was to provide recommendations for land use and infrastructure that are in alignment with the neighborhood’s vision for its future.

The plan was brought before City Council in July of 2007, where it was unanimously approved.  And then....

To date, very little has been implemented on the NMSAIP.  We get it.  Budgets and costs are everything, and we are just coming out of one of the worst recessions of our times that have affected individuals, businesses, and governments.  But now, and especially now with the recent City Council approval of the Complete Streets Plan for Long Street/E Innes Street, we think the time may be right to start the City on a path toward rethinking implementation of our plan...even if incrementally.

During the planning process, neighborhood residents put pen to paper during a design workshop to illustrate their ideas about further revitalization of the neighborhood.  Two design professionals, one representing the landscape architecture tradition and one from the field of architecture, translated the neighborhood’s visions into Conceptual Views, incorporating many of the elements sketched by the residents during the workshop (Views A and View B).

This Plan recommends a series of Actions & Strategies for achieving the neighborhood’s future vision. They have been organized according to the broader Goals as follows:

1. Build Neighborhood Identity 
2. Expand Transportation Network 
3. Improve Neighborhood Services & Amenities 
4. Increase Trees & Open Space 
5. Improve Housing Conditions 
6. Improve Neighborhood Appearance

Under each of these neighborhood goals, the plan expands the concepts to include methods to accomplish these goals:

1. Build Neighborhood Identity 

• Recognize the “gateways” on each end of North Main Street with treatments such as wide planted medians, signage or public art to establish a sense of entry and to help create place through recognition of the area’s history. 
• Encourage adaptive reuse of the Parkdale Fibers facility alongside the railroad tracks at Steele Street as artisan studios or comparable neighborhood-scale activities. 
• Support any changes to Henderson Independent High School which may be proposed in the future that will help strengthen its ties to the neighborhood. 

     -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now 

• Collaborate with the Waterworks Visual Arts Center [and other arts groups] on ways to promote the neighborhood among local artists and help draw more artists to the area. 
• Partner with the Henderson Independent High School to offer classes taught by resident artists, designers and craftsmen. 
• Work with the Branding & Wayfinding Committee to develop unique signage for the neighborhood which expresses its distinctive appeal. 
• Continue to broaden participation among both homeowners and renters in neighborhood organizations, including the Old North Main Association and the Community Watch Program.

2. Expand Transportation Network 

• Consider changes to North Main Street to make it more conducive to pedestrian and bicycle travel and to make it more compatible with the residential character of the neighborhood. 
• Determine the feasibility of a three-lane cross-section with turn lanes and explore opportunities for planted medians, marked on-street parking by means of curb extensions or parking bays, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and round-abouts at key intersections. 
• In the context of street design or commercial redevelopment, consider the focal point created at 13th Street where the “vista” along North Main Street terminates. 
• Consider the addition of an attractive pedestrian footbridge along the axis of West Steele Street from where it terminates at North Church Street to enhance connectivity to City Park. 
• Create a “mini-gateway” to City Park at the intersection of East Miller and Jackson Streets to include crosswalks and possibly a traffic circle. 
• Ensure that new street patterns that are created through the subdivision of larger parcels respect the existing pattern of gridded streets. 

      -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now 

• Install crosswalks on North Main Street at Henderson, Miller, Steele, 11th & 13th Streets.
• Install new sidewalk on Miller Street between City Park and North Main Street while narrowing the roadway width. 
• Replace sidewalk on the 100 block of West Henderson Street. Complete repairs needed to other existing sidewalks. 
• Mark transit stops on North Main Street with signage and seating. 

3. Improve Neighborhood Services & Amenities

• Encourage the development of a neighborhood center between 11th and 13th Streets incorporating neighborhood-scale buildings, gathering places and mixed uses offering high-quality services and amenities that serve the needs of area residents. 
• Adaptively reuse the historic trolley barn for art studios, gallery space, a small performing arts center/community center or other neighborhood-scale activities. Restore it to its original appearance or redesign the façade to be more in keeping with the architectural fabric and scale of other historic buildings on North Main Street. 
• Rehabilitate other historic commercial buildings located along North Main Street to help attract quality, low-impact businesses and services. Encourage redevelopment that brings vibrant, eclectic gathering places such as coffee houses, bookstores and similar destinations. 

      -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now 

• Establish a commercial façade and/or landscape grant program for the North Main Street corridor. 
• Promote existing tax credits that are available for historic income producing structures. 
• Encourage participation in public hearings concerning adoption of the proposed Land Development Ordinance to ensure that zoning decisions take into account neighborhood needs and desires, especially those related to more intensive land uses (commercial and industrial). 
• Establish a corridor overlay district similar to the East Innes Gateway Overlay model to ensure that land uses are compatible with neighborhood character.

4. Increase Trees & Open Space 

• Create a train watchers’ station and park on North Railroad Street. 
• Incorporate high-quality, improved public open space into commercial redevelopment projects, including plazas, neighborhood greens and pocket parks. 
• Develop a pocket park in the vicinity between 11th and 13th Streets and consider opportunities for a park near the Spencer gateway. 
• Include improved public open space with any residential infill involving subdivision of property into multiple lots. 

      -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now 

• Focus tree plantings in the tree lawns on North Main Street, particularly between 11th and 13th Streets, and also along the approach to the downtown, to help screen more intensive commercial uses and parking areas. 
• Establish a commercial landscape grant program to help reduce the “sea of pavement” effect that exists among the older commercial properties long North Main Street.

5. Improve Housing Conditions

• Establish a housing commission to work with landlords and tenants.
• Develop a rental occupancy permitting program to ensure that rental homes are adequately maintained and repaired between tenants.

      -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now

• Adopt a Demolition by Neglect ordinance to help reduce the incidence of severely neglected and deteriorated housing. 
• Explore potential for designation as a selected neighborhood for CDBG funding. Apply funding toward housing rehabilitation,sidewalk construction or other infrastructure.
• Expand the National Register Historic District to include the areas which have been recommended along East Steele, Scales and North Lee Streets. Encourage property owners to take advantage of the tax credit benefits available for major home rehabilitation projects.
• Continue to work with local realtors to raise awareness about the neighborhood and help increase home ownership. 
• Expand city code enforcement capabilities, especially concerning housing code enforcement.
• Continue promoting Historic Preservation Incentive Grants for home repairs.

6. Improve Neighborhood Appearance

• Explore possibilities for burying existing overhead utilities along North Main Street as part of any substantial commercial redevelopment project.
• Identify ways to incorporate pedestrian-scaled lighting along North Main Street, taking into consideration the existing overabundance of utility poles which carry overhead wires.

      -- Actions & Strategies to Pursue Now

• Adopt ordinance regulating parking on front lawns as part of the new Land Development Code.
• Work with existing commercial property owners to voluntarily screen existing outdoor storage areas and other unsightly views.
• Continue and increase enforcement capabilities concerning porch and yard debris and overgrown lots.

Here is what we have accomplished thus far:

♦  A new ordinance was established that disallows parking vehicles on lawns to improve the overall look of yards and residences throughout the city.
♦  Past NOMA President Sue McHugh worked with City and County Health Dept. representatives to be awarded a Fit Community Grant that provided the necessary funding to install the sidewalk at W. Miller Street to City Park.
♦  Neighborhood representatives worked in a collaborative effort with City Planning Department, the NC Department of Transportation, and the Community Development Corporation (CDC) to demolish the abandoned gas station at E. 11th Street and N. Main Street.  NC DOT removed old driveway aprons, installed new curbing and new storm drains.  A new bus shelter and trash receptacle were installed.  Trees are due to be planted in the new green space there.
♦  The City's Community Appearance Commission worked with City Council to create a new Housing Advocacy Commission that addresses housing conditions and renter/landlord relations.
♦  New crab apple trees were planted along W. Miller Street.

There is so much more to be accomplished!

In January 2015, residents signed a letter to City Council, urging our elected officials to please consider further implication of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan. 

In our letter, we explained how, of the residential neighborhoods that developed along East and West Innes Street and North and South Main Street during the period 1900-1930, North Main Street alone has survived the encroachment of urban development to retain much of its original character and appearance.  The architectural fabric, created during the process of suburbanization which took place in Salisbury between 1900 and 1930, is still largely intact providing North Main Street with a rich and varied character worthy of preservation. North Main Street is the last remaining residential corridor into the City of Salisbury, is the anchoring corridor through the North Main Neighborhood, and is the gateway to the City from the north.

Already a highly visible corridor, North Main Street will imminently be even more in the spotlight with the coming development of the Rowan County School Central Office building to our south, and the highly successful programming at the NC Transportation Museum to our north, who’s Polar Express winter holiday program was completely sold out in fall of 2014. Successful anchors such as these promise to bring even more visitors to the North Main corridor, and it will be the face of Salisbury to many.

Respecting this, the North Main Neighborhood (NOMA) requested City Council to consider moving towards further implementation of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan, unanimously approved by City Council in July of 2007, stating that our residents support the provisions of the Plan, such as:

• Reducing lane widths along North Main Street; 
• Implementation of on-street parking; 
• Planted medians along North Main Street; 
• Pocket parks and green spaces; 
• Sidewalk bump-outs 
• Pedestrian crosswalks and lighting

We believe that all of these components of the plan are within reach, especially with consideration that North Main Street is no longer the bypass for Interstate-85.  And we strongly believe that implementation of these components per the North Main Improvement plan is in synchronicity with the residential culture of the neighborhood and would enhance not only this culture but the overall appearance of our NOMA gateway community. 

Our letter, signed by 45 residents of the neighborhood and beyond, also requested that City Council work in conjunction with the Housing Advocacy and Community Appearance Commissions to develop stronger, enforceable ordinances to prevent the effects of Demolition by Neglect that is so strongly affecting our neighborhood and others citywide.

We certainly understand the restraint of budgets, but when the benefits are so great, not only to the neighborhood, but to the City of Salisbury, we believe that moving forward on the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan and a program to mitigate Demolition by Neglect makes good sense for the future of our City and its residents. 

If you would like a copy of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan and/or a copy of our letter to City Council, please send an email to:

themainneighborhood@gmail.com

northmainneighborhood@gmail.com

There are many, many more ideas to further the overall quality of life listed in the Plan.  We encourage you to read it over and see what we can do to also start implementing some of these! 

Thanks, All!