Zoning Decision Delayed
Council cautious with ‘precedent-setting’ move at Jake Alexander Boulevard, Faith Road

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

Allow offices and you’ll create spot zoning, more traffic and start the domino-effect destruction of a residential neighborhood.

Don’t allow offices and watch the area fill up with rental properties: duplexes, triplexes and apartments. It will create an eyesore, devalue the neighborhood and lead to a domino effect, too.

So go the arguments at the heart of a zoning case at the busy intersection of Jake Alexander Boulevard and Faith Road. Flowe Realty and Development seeks to change the zoning for vacant property on the northeast and southeast corners from two-family residential (R-6) to office-institutional (B-1).

Salisbury City Council held a public hearing on the zoning issue Tuesday. But believing that its decision could have repercussions for years to come, council delayed a vote. Instead, Mayor Susan Kluttz appointed a two-man committee of Councilmen Bill Burgin and Scott Maddox to look at the request more closely.

Several speakers Tuesday favored a rezoning, including attorney George Hundley, who represented Flowe Realty.

‘‘You need to be pro-active on this,’’ Hundley told council. ‘‘To do otherwise is to allow the whole area to go down.’’

Meanwhile, the Salisbury Planning Board has recommended against a change in zoning. In recent weeks, planners also looked at Jake Alexander Boulevard from Morlan Park Road to Stokes Ferry Road and came up with two resolutions: that the new corridor remain residentially zoned and that the middle lane of the five-lane highway be converted into a planted median to buttress the residential nature of the area.

Senior Planner Harold Poole also noted that the lots in question are considerable distances away from existing office or commercial uses along either Faith Road or Jake Alexander Boulevard.

In addition, four property owners of the area expressed reservations about the request Tuesday, arguing in some cases that it represented spot zoning.

Hundley disagreed. He also argued that the type of residential development now in progress along the new boulevard extension will be bad for Salisbury in the long run.

‘‘It’s being developed in a way that downgrades the neighborhood,’’ Hundley said. He challenged the notion that the five-lane corridor should still be considered residential in nature.

‘‘The DOT (Department of Transportation) cut a raw swath through there,’’ Hundley said. ‘‘It is a wound on the land.’’

Under the present zoning, the area’s shallow lots are good only for rental properties such as duplexes and triplexes, Hundley said. Office zoning has the kind of setbacks and landscaping requirements that still make small lots such as the ones in question usable, Hundley added.

The attorney referred to Charleston Mayor Joe Riley’s visit to Salisbury last week and the mayor’s contention that mixed uses in a neighborhood are necessary and good for a neighborhood. He said council should look forward and find ways to use the property in innovative ways.

But leaving it zoned residential will create more transient housing and lead to this section’s decline, Hundley reiterated.

‘‘I think it would be a travesty to continue that type of development along that road,’’ Dan Flowe said. He added that he would like to build small, 1 1/2-story, brick office buildings of a Charleston design on the lots.

Flowe’s brother, Dave, said he would be against building residential units on the corner out of concern for the safety of children who might live there.

Terry Medley of Rockwell said he also owns property along the road and the only option for him would be apartments under the present zoning. Apartments bring more traffic, more school-bus stops and safety concerns for children, he said.

Jimmy Holmes of Rockwell said his employer recently looked for office space in eastern Salisbury and couldn’t find any before settling in Granite Quarry. There’s a need for office space on that eastern part of town, Holmes said.

Mayor Kluttz and Mayor Pro Tem Paul Woodson urged more study. Kluttz said it would be a precedent-setting zoning decision for that area, and council only recently received word of the planners’ corridor study.

Councilman Maddox said the city needs a strong policy for the whole area, not just the two lots in question. Burgin agreed that the decision needs ‘‘a broader stroke.’’ He said the planning board did good work but added that more study was in order.

Grace United Methodist Church, which hopes to build a new church on property south of the corner, supports the request for office zoning.