Prospects look good for new Taco Bell to go up on Jake Alexander

By Mark Wineka

mwineka@salisburypost.com

Salisbury looks to be in line for a new Taco Bell.

The fast-food restaurant is proposed near the corner of Jake Alexander Boulevard and N.C. 150 on a 1.27-acre parcel next to an existing Pizza Hut takeout/delivery location and a vacant retail store.

Salisbury already has a Taco Bell on East Innes Street.

The new Taco Bell will be a 2,755-square-foot restaurant with 40 parking spaces and will offer access from both major highways.

John Leatherman owns the property. When the existing Pizza Hut parcel is included, the total site is about 2.4 acres.

Leatherman asked that special-district ordinances approved for the property in 2001 be repealed and replaced by a Conditional District ordinance, which is new under the city's Land Development Ordinance.

The existing Highway Business zoning would not change.

The Salisbury Planning Board voted for the changes Tuesday, and that recommendation will go to Salisbury City Council.

The only issue for the project was connected to sidewalks.

The city's Technical Review Committee recommended that the developer construct a sidewalk along Jake Alexander Boulevard from the existing driveway to the corner at N.C. 150.

Taco Bell preferred building a sidewalk in front of the new restaurant only or offered to make a payment in lieu of sidewalk to the city.

Sometimes developers are given an option of taking the money they would normally be required to spend on sidewalks and paying it instead into a specific account.

The money in that city account is used to build sidewalks in other areas where the need is greater.

Corey Baker of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., civil engineers for the project, said the extra sidewalk would confront many utility issues and signs the closer it got to the corner of Jake Alexander Boulevard and N.C. 150.

The Planning Board recommended that the Taco Bell be allowed to make a payment to the city in lieu of having to install a sidewalk. The payment would equate to $25 a linear foot for the distance in front of the proposed restaurant, or approximately $5,885.

The cost of a sidewalk all the way to the corner would have been about double that cost.