By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
A city review committee gave its “provisional approval” Thursday to site plans for a new Rowan County Department of Social Services.
The county department will move next to the Rowan County Health Department between East Innes Street and Faith Road.
The project will include the renovation of 19,353 square feet of existing space next to the Health Department and an addition of 27,056 square feet.
The Health Department already uses 24,559 square feet of the former department store building. With new construction, the two county departments will take up more than 70,000 square feet.
The DSS office is now located off 1236 W. Innes St.
The Technical Review Committee, which includes representatives from planning, engineering, the Fire Department and Salisbury-Rowan Utilities, gave its provisional approval pending several minor issues and one major one ó whether the N.C. Department of Transportation will require construction of a deceleration lane leading into the East Innes Street entrance.
If the Department of Transportation requires the extra lane, it will mean relocating a 4-inch gas main and 12-inch waterline and considerable redesign in sidewalks and parking. As of now, the state agency is asking for the right-turn lane off East Innes Street because of the volume of visitors the two departments see daily.
City representatives and the architect on the project will try to meet in coming days with Department of Transportation representatives.
The Technical Review Committee also looked at site plans for Phase IV of Pinnacle Office Park, which would be located off Jake Alexander Boulevard West and South Main and Dodd streets.
The plans call for six office condominiums, five of which would be 12,000 square feet in size. The other building would be 15,000 square feet.
Altogether, the project would provide 35 ornamental and 36 shade trees and parking for more than 300 cars.