SALISBURY — Mayor Paul Woodson urged city staff on Wednesday to reach out to every East Innes Street business that would be affected by a plan calling for medians on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
Woodson also said he wants to make sure First Calvary Baptist Church members and surrounding residents are happy with proposed medians and bike lanes on South Long Street.
Consultant Drake Fowler of Design Workshop in Asheville presented the draft final plan of Complete Streets, a 58-page document outlining changes for East Innes and Long streets aimed at slowing traffic, encouraging bicycling in some areas and making it safer for pedestrians to cross the street and use sidewalks. The changes are mostly crosswalks, landscaping, pedestrian crossing signals, curb bumpouts and medians in certain blocks, as well as bike lanes on Long Street.
The plan does not include left turns at the Square, although designers made other recommendations for the intersection of Main and Innes streets.
Fowler presented the draft to Woodson and the Complete Streets steering committee, which generally embraced the plan. It covers 10 blocks of East Innes and 14 blocks of North and South Long and would cost about $3.1 million to implement.
“It’s an excellent plan and practical and doable,” City Planner Lynn Raker said. “The cost estimates need tweaking but it’s fairly reasonable to cover that many blocks for that little money and make such dramatic changes.”
Designers kept the cost down by not moving curb lines, City Planner Janet Gapen said.
“Overall, the cost is incredibly reasonable, given the kind of impact that all of this would have,” she said.
The plan breaks down the costs block by block, down to the last trash can, so the city could implement it in pieces.
City staff agreed to personally speak with every East Innes business owner in the area proposed for new medians — from Long Street to Arlington Street — to explain how customers would get to their shop or restaurant.
Woodson said he was cautious not critical and wanted to avoid the opposition that erupted years ago when the city introduced changes to East Innes Street without properly communicating with business owners.
“When medians went in by the interstate, business owners were furious,” Woodson said.
While the design looks nice, Woodson said, “We need to make sure all these businesses in here know what’s happening. A lot of times no one knows anything until construction starts, and then everyone starts screaming.”
Woodson said years ago, the city pulled back after a rough launch of the East Innes Corridor Overlay. He and former Councilman Bill Burgin went out and talked to each business owner to explain the proposal and changed many minds, Woodson said.
“We’ve got to do the same thing,” he said. “If not, we’re going to get killed.”
Gapen agreed.
“It will be really important to meet with business owners personally so they can have their questions answered individually so they can really understand how it may impact their business,” she said.
Mark Lewis, a former City Councilman and president of Downtown Salisbury Inc., said the city should host an informational workshop specifically for business owners.
“You don’t want another Statesville Boulevard,” Lewis said, referring to backlash to medians on that road several years ago.
No matter how hard the city works to communicate, some will object to medians, Lewis said.
“It doesn’t matter when you do it, if you put a median in front of a business, they’re going to complain and rightfully so,” he said. “You are limiting access to their business.”
But elected officials must weigh inconvenience for businesses against pedestrian safety, Lewis said, who supports the medians. The $120,000 study was prompted by the deaths of two pedestrians crossing the five-lane street, which has a long stretch without a traffic signal.
Eighty percent of funding for Complete Streets came from the Cabarrus-Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization and 10 percent from N.C. Department of Transportation. The city picked up the remaining 10 percent, or $12,000.
Medians on East Innes would be placed so that no driver would have to make a U-turn, Fowler said. Businesses not located on a corner would not have a median.
Businesses on a corner would be accessible by motorists turning onto the side street and then into the business.
Lewis pointed out that the Courtyard Marriott, completed last year, has an existing median with no detrimental effects.
“They’re doing so well, they are considering another hotel right beside it,” Lewis said. “Or so I’ve heard.”
Committee member Karl Sale said businesses with existing medians on East Innes are some of the most successful. Traffic calming measures in the plan would help businesses by slowing drivers, making the street more aesthetically pleasing and encouraging pedestrians, Sale said.
City Councilman Pete Kennedy, who also attended, agreed the city needs more public input before the plan goes to a public hearing.
“We don’t want to surprise anybody,” he said.
So far, the design team has held more than 30 meetings with the public, including three large workshops, a three-day design charrette and dozens of interviews with stakeholders. After each meeting, people understood the plan a little better, Raker said.
A handful of residents attended Wednesday’s presentation, and most said they supported some or all of the plan. Clyde, who only uses one name, opposes the plan and said it could cause more pedestrian fatalities, not fewer. He also criticized the city for the lack of attendance by First Calvary Baptist Church members, many of whom opposed medians and bike lanes on South Long Street during a previous meeting.
Clyde pledged a large and vocal opposition when the plan comes before City Council for a public hearing.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.