BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

When discussion turns to regionalism, Salisbury is often thrown in as an outlying city within a vast, populous area that looks to Charlotte as its focus.

Bill McCoy, director of the Urban Institute of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, says Salisbury should start looking at itself as a regional center.

It will take leadership, resources and aggressive marketing of the city as a regional drawing card, McCoy said Tuesday night at the fourth public education session of the Salisbury Vision 2020 series.

‘‘You’ve got to tell your story and, lo and behold, you have one,’’ McCoy told a sizable crowd at the Rowan County Administrative building.

Salisbury already is an arts and cultural center. It probably has emphasized historic preservation more than any other city in the region. It is known for downtown innovations. With its three colleges, Salisbury stands as an education center.

Train traffic and Interstate 85 also make it a transportation center.

McCoy saw some other positives in Salisbury’s future.

‘‘Believe me, there are advantages to being 40 miles from Charlotte,’’ McCoy said, emphasizing a distance that’s sometimes considered a drawback.

Being far enough away from Charlotte means it’s unlikely that Salisbury will be overrun by Charlotte’s growth. It will also able to maintain its own identity, McCoy said. In any case, Salisbury has time to plan, he added.

And McCoy emphasized that planning for the future, an exercise that the Salisbury Vision 2020 Committee will be deeply involved in for the next 17 months, stands as the difference between communities that will do well vs. those that will not.

The planning mechanism in cities and counties needs to be in place to consider thoughtfully and creatively things such as water-sewer extensions and new business and residential development, McCoy said.

‘‘If you’re not plugged into that through your planning department, you’re going to miss out,’’ McCoy said.

McCoy said the most important kind of regionalism, in his mind, occurs within counties. In Rowan County, there are two population clusters. One includes Salisbury, Spencer, East Spencer and Granite Quarry. The other includes southern Rowan: China Grove, Landis and Kannapolis.

The strength of Salisbury could depend on how well it interacts and connects with these communities, especially southern Rowan, McCoy said. Rowan County government has a role as a facilitator of cooperation between these population clusters.

The county should not become an adversary, McCoy warned.

Other presenters Tuesday included Lisa Renstrom, co-chairman of Voices & Choices, the follow-up effort to the regional issues identified at last November’s Environmental Summit. Issues included things such as open space preservation, mass transit, solid waste management and improving water and air quality.

Tracy Russ, project manager for the 14-county Central Carolina Choices, also spoke about the need for developing a new poll of leadership, promoting citizen involvement, measuring trends and developing an electronic network for the region of which Salisbury is a part.

‘‘We all sense that we are a small part of a larger thing,’’ said Bill Burgin, chairman of the Salisbury Vision 2020 Committee.