Rezoning request turned down for Fulton Street beauty salon
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST |
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Salisbury City Council denied a rezoning Tuesday that would have allowed an expansion of
the Changes beauty salon on South Fulton Street.
Karen L. Baity and her supporters said her salon's growth into a neighboring duplex at 915
S. Fulton St. and onto a vacant lot at 911 S. Fulton St. would enhance an area that needs
improvement.
But opponents, including the Historic Salisbury Foundation, contended that Changes would
become too big for a transition area that should remain more residential in character.
Council sided with the latter argument, as had the Salisbury Planning Board in May.
While cities increasingly look to integrate business with residential areas, Councilman
Bill Burgin said, the scale of the business within a neighborhood must be considered.
For this kind of neighborhood, Burgin said he pictures pedestrian-oriented businesses
without parking lots. The size of an establishment in the requested zoning district
(convenience service business) must remain small and the number of business properties
within an area also has to be considered, Burgin said.
"I think this is beyond that,'' he added.
Baity hoped to offer more services such as tanning beds and nail care in the house at 915
S. Fulton St. The vacant lot and rear portion of the duplex were needed for additional
parking.
Mayor Susan Kluttz said it was difficult not to be sympathetic with a business owner who
is trying to improve her property, but she warned that care must be taken in rezoning
residential property to a business classification. Once it turns to business, it never
returns to residential, she said.
The current zoning for 911 and 915 S. Fulton St. is multi-family residential (R-6A).
Historic Salisbury Foundation has purchased a house at 907 S. Fulton St. and expects to
close on a house at 903 S. Fulton St. next week. It will try to stabilize the structures
and return them to single-owner, occupied residences.
"Rezoning these two properties (owned by Baity) to the BSC classification will have a
profoundly negative effect on efforts to strengthen this important area of Fulton
Street,'' said Diane Dillon Hooper, executive director of the foundation.
The foundation considers this area a fragile transition neighborhood between the West
Square and Fulton Heights historic districts. The convenience service business
classification sought by Baity was meant for "small retail facilities to serve the
residents of the immediate neighborhood, rather than to serve many geographically
disparate and diverse neighborhoods,'' Dillon said, quoting the zoning code.
Dillon also cited a passage from the Salisbury 2000 Plan that says "care should be
taken to prevent commercial activities with extensive market areas from locating around
residential neighborhoods.''
"Encroachment by new or expanded commercial uses into viable existing or planned
residential areas shall be prohibited,'' she added, again quoting Salisbury 2000.
Pete Hoffman, also opposed to the rezoning, said photographs shown to council of the
properties in question represented the classic type of development that occurs in a
weakened residential neighborhood.
"When I saw these pictures, I saw a bunch of asphalt and development not slanted
toward the neighborhood,'' Hoffman said.
Baity gave council a petition with some 300 names in support of her rezoning. She added
that only two of 18 surrounding property owners opposed her request.
Mike Crayton of Mitchell Avenue said the majority of the 900 block of South Fulton Street
is already zoned for convenience service business. He also noted three other businesses in
the 1000 block of South Fulton Street.
Crayton said Baity would improve what's now a duplex with minimal upkeep and said her
plans would represent the integration of businesses in neighborhoods as envisioned by the
city's Vision 2020 Committee.
Nancy Owen, who owns a photography studio on South Fulton Street, also spoke on Baity's
behalf. She said the Changes salon already looks 100 percent better since Baity purchased
it and added that she couldn't see her request's being denied "for one old house.'' |
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