NOMA Residents Successful in Fighting for the Integrity of the Neighborhood!

North Main Street in Salisbury, North Carolina is the last remaining residential corridor into the City of Salisbury. Of the residential neighborhoods that developed along East and West Innes Street and North and South Main Street during the period of 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 anchoring corridor through the North Main Neighborhood (NOMA), and is the gateway to the City of Salisbury from the north.

On Monday May 12, 2015, we learned that Flowers Baking Company at 1405 N Main Street had plans to remove a wood stockade fence that encircles the property, and replace it with an 8' high chain link fenced, topped with another 3 feet of barbed wire. Because Flowers Bakery is in the historic overlay that makes up the North Main Historic District, the company's owners had to seek a COA (Certificate of Appropriateness) from the City of Salisbury.

The case was to be heard in Public Forum at the City's Historic Preservation Commission meeting on Thursday May 14th at 5:15 ~ first on the agenda!  This gave neighbors and concerned citizens very little time to 'rally the troops' against this intrusive change to integrity of our residential neighborhood.

While, yes ~ we are largely a residential district, we have a small commercial hub in the center of the Main Street run from north to south, basically from about 11th Street to 15th Street. We would actually like to develop this into a village center, with attractive and friendly businesses. Wouldn't we love to see a neighborhood coffee shop or a green grocer here! A florist! So we don't wish to construe that we have anything against the Flowers Bakery...we love having them here! But barbed wire? NO! We believe this sends the wrong message about the culture of our neighborhood.

Several residents attended the Historic Preservation Commission meeting yesterday, hearing the case presented by Flowers Bakery to the commission, and voicing concerns regarding the affect this type of fencing would have on our neighborhood. Here are some things we learned:

• The City of Salisbury's Land Use Code says: "Sec. 22-8. - Barbed wire fences: It shall be unlawful for any owner, agent or occupant of any lot or premises to erect, maintain or allow on such premises, along any street or alley, any barbed wire or barbed wire fence." 
• The North Main Small Area Improvement Plan devotes a section of its Recommendations and Implementation Strategies (Chapter 3) to this commercial section of the district, saying:
• Façade designs need to be more in keeping with the architectural fabric and scale of other historic buildings on North Main Street. 
• We need to encourage developers to rehabilitate commercial buildings along North Main Street in such a manner that helps attract quality, low-impact businesses and services, and encourage redevelopment that brings vibrant, eclectic gathering places such as coffee houses, bookstores and similar destinations.
• Businesses need to ensure that development decisions take into account neighborhood needs and desires, especially those related to commercial and industrial land uses. 
• Flowers Bakery keeps a fleet of delivery trucks on their property.  They said they had seen a high break-in rate here, however citizens attending local SNAG (Salisbury Neighborhood Action Group) meetings with Salisbury Police said that statistics had been reported that crime rates had gone down in the neighborhood. Flowers Bakery amended their statement saying that this was over a nine-year period.

Concerned citizens, from NOMA and other surrounding neighborhoods, wrote to the City with comments such as this:

"This type of fence will negatively impact their business, as it will make potential patrons feel unwanted emotionally. The property is small enough that the fence will visually overpower in a negative way the prettiness of the brick building itself. It will also make passersby feel as if they are in a high crime area, so they will not be as interested in stopping in to make purchases. Also, it will detract potential homeowners who would live in their properties from purchasing in our neighborhood. We are actively working to increase our owner-occupied homes, and this will work against the vision we have for our neighborhood. I advocate replacing the wooden fence with a new one of the same makeup, as it adds to the visual appeal of the business and makes people feel welcome to the store, as well as adding visual appeal to the neighborhood as a whole."  ~ L. Klaus, North Main Neighborhood

"In any neighborhood, appearance has a great deal to do with the way outsiders consider the area. How neatly the yards are kept, how well the homes are maintained, how friendly the neighborhood appears are all factors that encourages people to think highly of the area as well as possibly considering moving into the locale. Fences are a large part of appearance....To borrow slightly from Robert Frost might be important when we ask if fences make good neighbors......yes, they might, but an inappropriate fence can do more than make a poor neighbor; it can affect an entire neighborhood. It can change one's perspective of a neighborhood from friendly to 'rough'.  

While chain link fences might be in some neighborhoods, putting one in with barbed wire certainly does not make a visitor to the community think of friendly and safe. Many people drive along the North Main corridor daily and it seems that the City of Salisbury would want to have this entrance into town appear as welcoming as possible. So, while 1402 North Main may need a fence, could we not consider one more neighborhood friendly....one that encourages NOMA rather than discouraging it and its residents?" ~ D. Lesley, Ellis Street Graded School Neighborhood

HPC board members analyzed the input from the hearing, and long story short, and voted unanimously to deny the request for chain link & barbed wire fencing. 

We did learn that the Flowers Baking Company plans to make major renovations to the store.  We hope they will work with the neighborhood and with our city's Historic Preservation, Planning, and Code folks to ensure the renovations encourage the positive development we know will help attract more home owners and quality businesses to the district.

We heard from Flowers Bakery representatives that they have a lot of 'walk-up' business.  Well of course they do!!  And we wish to keep the pedestrian friendly nature of our neighborhood alive!  We strongly wish to promote a commercial sector that might become a little thriving hub for the neighborhood, encouraging development that is pedestrian oriented and blends harmoniously with surrounding housing. 

Viewed at their broadest, neighborhood commercial districts should be designed to: 

• Create a pedestrian-oriented environment. 
• Mitigate negative off-site impacts from commercial establishments to the greatest extent feasible. 
• Provide for monitoring and enforcement of any potential negative off-site impacts. 

Another interesting comment we heard from the Flowers Bakery representatives:  "We didn't think anyone from the neighborhood would show up at this hearing."  We proved that not only would we show up, but we care enough to research the facts and protect the culture and integrity of our neighborhood!

Thank you, NOMA!


 

The North Main Neighborhood
www.north-main.org
www.facebook.com/NOMAnorthmain

What's Next for NOMA? Exciting Times Ahead!

This is a great time to be in the North Main Neighborhood!  

The City of Salisbury, the Community Development Corporation, and our State DOT collaborated with NOMA on a North Main Neighborhood Impact Project that has resulted in a green space at the corner of East 11th Street and North Main Street, with new curbs, storm drains, and gutters, a new attractive bus shelter, and newly planted trees.  The long abandoned (and eyesore!) gas station was demolished.  What an improvement to this City of Salisbury corridor!

The Historic Salisbury Foundation has invested in not one, not two, but THREE endangered homes in the historic district that sits at the center of this 400+ home neighborhood.  Stabilization efforts through the Foundation's revolving fund will create more opportunities for families to live in our neighborhood.

The City's Community Appearance Commission put NOMA on their 2015-16 goals with specific references to creating pocket parks and working towards implementing the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan, approved by City Council in 2007 but not as yet implemented.  Neighbors signed a letter to Council this January, in time for Council's planning retreat, asking for implementation of the Improvement Plan in that it mimics the safety concerns for our residents that are outlined in the recently approved Complete Streets Plan for Long and East Innes Streets.

Citizens were proactive in speaking out to Code Enforcement, Salisbury Police, and City Council to get the burned and abandoned home and former service station at Main and W. Steele Street ~ resulting in the demolition of those buildings, and a new grade to the lot.

We have a Fresh Egg Farm-to-Home program!  Two Pigs Farm is furnishing NOMA with farm fresh eggs!  Email northmainneighborhood@gmail.com to find out more, and/or email twopigsfarm@gmail.com to order eggs in advance.  Eggs are delivered fresh every Friday night for Saturday morning availability!

The neighborhood has rallied with a new Board of Directors and new officers.  The Board returned to the moniker 'The Old North Salisbury Association', which was always the formal, long-standing, and registered name of

the neighborhood association.  The Board has plans are in the works to get date plaques for homes in our historic district.  For more information or to order a plaque, email themainneighborhood@gmail.com.   As part of a push for membership, you can write a check for $35.00 which will include your $10.00 membership donation and $25.00 for the plaque.


The new Board of Directors hosts a meeting monthly on the second Friday, rotating to different homes in the neighborhood.  The Board meets first at 6:00PM, and then opens to a general neighborhood meeting at 7:00PM, often following the meeting with refreshments and a social hour so that neighbors can get to know one another!

So it's a great time to be live in NOMA!  There will be many more exciting improvements coming our way!

Join us!













The North Main Neighborhood
northmainneighborhood@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/NOMAnorthmain 

Volunteer Day in NOMA a Huge Success!

We had plenty of work to do this Saturday during our NOMA Volunteer Work Day, and the morning rain and cold might have tried, but did little to slow us down!

Historic Salisbury Foundation, through their revolving fund, is working on... not one...not two...but THREE endangered homes along North Main Street in the historic district here. We called on volunteers to help with interior and exterior cleanup ~ and boy! Did they come! Volunteers could be seen up and down the north section of the neighborhood with rakes, pruners, loppers, chainsaws, and more ~ working at 1428, 1600, and 1623 North Main ~ all wanting to be a part of this awesome neighborhood revitalization!

1428 North Main Street

1428 North Main Street, built in 1900 (some think 1898), has been known as the neighborhood's 'Scaffolding House' for far too long.  This grand home had become an unfortunate landmark along the North Main corridor into the City of Salisbury, so you can imagine the neighborhood's delight when Historic Salisbury Foundation retained ownership of the home and began restoration efforts in earnest!  When Elaine Myers-Hillard, who was born and raised in this home, heard of the preservation effort of her family home, she contacted NOMA with donations and stories, expressing a deep gratitude for these restorative efforts!  This home has already gone through dramatic change, and volunteers today cleared vast piles of overgrown brush from the surrounding landscape...rain and all!

Volunteers are finishing the last of the window repairs upstairs at 1428 North Main Street and beginning work on the ones at ground level. Faust Historic Restorations is replacing damaged wood on the exterior, in preparation for new paint. A brick sidewalk was also uncovered this week.

The circa 1900 Myers-Morris Home at 1428 will be a masterpiece when finally restored. A huge home with 5 bedrooms upstairs, it will charm your socks off with its vintage beadboard walls, arched entry to the parlor, and original mantels! Much more work will go into this home, but it is FOR SALE through the Historic Salisbury Foundation.

Be sure to contact HSF at (704) 636-0103 to learn more about this great opportunity!

1600 North Main Street

1600 North Main Street is another circa 1900 home that HSF is helping to restore! This once-gorgeous Folk Victorian cottage with its pebble-dash exterior has more glory days in its future ~ thanks to the efforts of HSF and the many volunteers that descended upon the property today...cleaning inside and out!   This home is a wonderful example of the late Victorian character of the North Main Neighborhood with steeply sloped hipped roofs with projecting gables and dormers, its asymmetrical facade featuring recessed entry on one side, and its wrap-around porch with turned posts.  Speaking of porch ~ just look at that sweep of veranda!  You can see yourself enjoying a summer evening there, for sure! 

1623 North Main Street
 

1623 North Main Street, although cute as a button, is another endangered home in the area. Set above the street level on a terraced lot, this interesting Victorian frame cottage with its gabled roof is strongly influenced by the Colonial Revival style with its pedimented porch, supported by tall columns with a simple balustrade, which wraps around its projecting front parlor section. Neighborhood tradition states that it was built about 1910 by southern Railway clerk, J.D. Barber, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the J.D. Barber House. Volunteers worked tirelessly to clear the interior to make way for restoration efforts, and clipped and raked exterior landscaping until you might not recognize that it's the same abode!

Our fantastic team of volunteers worked for hours clearing heavy brush and overgrowth from the landscape. This 2-bedroom cottage with its own wrap-around porch and large yard will make a very fine home for its new owner in the near future!

If you couldn't make it out today, but you wish you could be a part of this revitalization and restoration effort...it's not too late!  The Historic Salisbury Foundation has a Go Fund Me Campaign in effect to help raise the many thousands of dollars to  implement the necessary repairs to stabilize these homes!  You can help by donating...even just a little bit!  Every dollar helps!

Neighborhoods Unite!

We'd like to give a shout-out to Salisbury's Brooklyn South Square, West Square, and Park Avenue Neighborhoods for joining our efforts today!  What a great vibe this creates in our downtown neighborhoods!  Thanks, all!

And . . . Koco Java!

We have one last shout-out...

Koco Java!

Thanks for the donation of much-needed and appreciated COFFEE today!  THANKS SO MUCH!








So...to all our wonderful volunteers today ~ Historic Salisbury Foundation ~ donors to Go Fund Me ~ and to Koco Java  ~ Thank you, thank you, thank you!  You are FABULOUS!

The North Main Neighborhood
northmainneighborhood@gmail.com  

Photo credits to Brian Davis and Doug Black at Historic Salisbury Foundation

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!

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!!!