By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Leaders want people from all parts of the city, not just the West End, to help determine the best way to revitalize the distressed area.
“It’s going to take the entire community chipping in, lending resources and participating and helping in order for us to truly transform the West End neighborhood,” said Joe Morris, director of Community Planning Services.
The federal government awarded the city and Salisbury Housing Authority $170,000 in March to come up with a plan for the West End neighborhood, including demolishing and rebuilding Civic Park Apartments, a public housing project constructed in 1953 and well-maintained but functionally obsolete.
The money pays for a two-year study, including hiring architects and consultants and engaging the community.
Salisbury will compete with 16 other cities for up to $30 million in federal grants to implement the ideas. Salisbury was the smallest city to win a 2010 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
To launch a community dialogue, leaders will host a public forum at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall.
“The purpose is to bring in not only residents from the West End and Civic Park but from the larger community to come and lend their ideas and provide input to the West End plan,” Morris said.
The city and Salisbury Housing Authority, also will conduct a two-day design charrette Oct. 19 and 20 to research physical changes they will propose for the West End, generally defined as Caldwell Street to Brenner Avenue, bounded by West Innes Street to the north and following Old Plank Road.
“There has been a long history in the neighborhood of leadership within the community,” Morris said.
The West End Community Organization, founded in 1955, is active today, with several members in attendance at the City Council meeting Tuesday. Community members have been vocal in the planning process.
Two groups will guide the transformation planning process — a steering committee made up of community stakeholders and city leaders, and a core committee of staff from the city and Salisbury Housing Authority.
Although the grant allows for two years for planning with a deadline of January 2013, Morris said he hopes to submit Salisbury’s entry by October 2012.
The final product will resemble the city’s master plan for downtown Salisbury.
“It will be a physical plan that shows what we want the neighborhood to look like, and then a number of policies, recommendations and action strategies tied to the plan that can be implemented over time,” Morris said.
The plan will accompany a notebook listing proposed policies in a logical order, he said.
“We need to be very thorough in our analysis and strategic in our implementation,” he said.
As part of the process, the city and housing authority will identify sources of money that could fund the plan if it doesn’t win a federal grant worth millions of dollars. That way, the planning process hasn’t been a waste, it would just take longer to implement.
“The idea is to create a vision and then backfill it with the strategies in order to accomplish it,” Morris said.