Salisbury City Council: In other business

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 20, 2013

In other business at Tuesday’s City Council meeting:

• Council rezoned about 24 acres and established a new Conditional District Overlay to permit a 9,000-square-foot exhibit building at the Rowan County Fairgrounds, 1560 Julian Road. No one spoke at the public hearing. The city rezoned the property from rural residential to highway business.

• Council granted a request from Integro Technologies to allow the company’s sidewalk to extend about two feet into the public right-of-way in the 100 block of East Bank Street. Integro has constructed a new headquarters at the corner of East Bank and South Main streets.

• Council agreed to TW Telecom’s request to install about 955 feet of telecommunication fiber in the public right-of-way on South Church Street and West Innes Street. The operator will pay the city a yearly tax of 10 cents per linear foot of cable installed, or about $95.50 annually.

City Council asked staff to look into increasing the tax, which has been the same for several years.

• Wellington Hills, a neighborhood near Isenberg Elementary School and Sacred Heart Catholic Church, won a $21,993 Storm Drainage Incentive Grant.

Wellington was the first applicant for city’s storm drainage grant program, which started last year when the city created a stormwater utility and tax. Grants will cover up to 50 percent of the cost of a qualifying project.

Director Craig Powers said he has encouraged property owners with stormwater drainage issues to apply. The city has about $25,000 to spend each year on grants. Wellington will replace a broken pipe that has caused a sinkhole and made a driveway unusable.

• Clyde, who only uses one name, asked where the city would put 165 parking spaces for the proposed school central office at 329 S. Main St. and asked if the city plans to build a $4 million parking deck.

Mayor Paul Woodson said City Council has not approved a parking deck, which he said is “probably a long way away.” The first phase of parking for the central office does not include a deck.

• Councilman Pete Kennedy and Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell said they are working on putting crosswalks on Monroe Street at Livingstone College.

• Council took no action after a closed session to consult with an attorney about “slander of title.” The city is looking into whether Rowan County slandered the title to city-owned property at 329 S. Main St., the proposed site of the school central office.

• Council reappointed Bill Burgin as chairman of the city’s tourism authority and Barbara Perry as vice chairwoman.