The Greater Salisbury area has grown steadily during the last several decades. The attractiveness of Rowan County's central Piedmont location, combined with gently rolling topography, an abundant labor force, good rail and highway transportation, expanding water and sewer systems, and a sound fiscal policy, have helped ensure Salisbury's continued growth over the years.
As the area becomes more densely settled, however, new problems must be faced, including: land use conflicts, as different uses are forced closer together; large public expenditures for the services and facilities required by this new growth; and the potential for a loss in the quality of life of the area.
The intent of the Strategic Growth Plan is to anticipate and plan for this growth, in a manner which helps protect the existing, quality of life of area residents, while at the same time avoiding unreasonable increases in the local tax burden. The Salisbury City Council recognized these issues when it appointed the Salisbury Strategic Growth Plan 2000 Task Force in early 1988. The Task Force was charged with responsibility for guiding the preparation of a long range plan for primarily the physical development of the City of Salisbury and its surrounding areas.
To help the Task Force accomplish this task, the City Council also hired the planning firm of Edward D. Stone, Jr. and Associates (EDSA). As the project proceeded, the preparation of the Strategic Growth Plan became a team effort headed by the Task Force, supported by the City Manager and his department heads, the staff of the City's Land Management and Community Development Department and EDSA.
The last comprehensive development plan for the Salisbury area was prepared in 1971. While that plan established a good baseline of information from which to measure change in the Greater Salisbury area, the plan is today considerably out of date relative to planning and growth issues in the late 1980's and beyond. This 1988 Strategic Growth Plan establishes a new foundation for planning through the year 2000, and sets forth specific growth policies for future development. It is recommended that this Plan be updated at least once more between now and the year 2000.
The Strategic Growth Plan performs several important functions for local government, private development interests, and the general public; these functions are briefly described as follows:
Public Participation in Managing Growth - Public forums, meetings, hearings, and questionnaires conducted during the Plan's preparation helped to ensure that the Plan expresses the will of the area's citizens.
The Strategic Growth Plan 2000 for the Greater Salisbury area consists of three parts. First, several Key Growth Factors are discussed which will shape the nature of development in the Salisbury area over the next decade or more. Second, an overall Growth Strategy is set forth outlining the overall size and direction of growth for the urbanizing area through at least the year 2000. Third, specific growth Policy Statements and an overall Growth Strategy Map are presented to carry out the will of the majority of the area's citizens as expressed during the public involvement process.
The following is a capsule summary of several Key Growth Factors that were examined to provide a baseline of information on past and present conditions in the planning area. Collectively these factors provide the essential yardsticks for estimating future conditions. The results of this examination are contained in full in Section 1 of the Strategic Growth Plan.
In July of 1986, there were an estimated 24,086 residents in the City of Salisbury, up from 22,515 in 1970. At the same time, Rowan County grew from 90,035 residents in 1970 to estimated 104,523 residents in 1986. The projected population for the City of Salisbury in the year 2000 is 30,000 compared to 115,000 for Rowan County. The City's past and present population increases have been largely due to annexation of surrounding urbanizing areas.
Rowan County, the smallest geographic area for which up-to-date economic information is available, continues to exhibit heavy reliance on manufacturing employment relative to the State as a whole. In recent years, however, employment statistics indicate a gradual shifting in the County's work force away from manufacturing, and toward a service economy.
The 1988 Existing Land Use Survey revealed a continuation of development trends first established during the early 1960's. Most new major residential subdivision activity is occurring to the southwest, west, and northwest of the urban core. At the same time, new major commercial development is following this pattern of new urban growth on the west side of town. Also, strip commercial development is continuing to spread along the planning area's major roadways.
The planning area is blessed with gently rolling topography and soils that are generally well suited for development. This is particularly true in the southwest, west, and northwest sides of the City where the most significant amounts of urban growth are occurring. Many of these same areas contain soils which are also well suited for agricultural use. Regarding the potential for flooding, the planning area has relatively limited amounts of floodprone land.
The City's water supply system has ample capacity to accommodate future growth within the Urban Services Boundary established by the Strategic Growth Plan. Regarding sewage collection and treatment, City voters recently approved a bond referendum to help ensure that the City's system will be maintained in a condition suitable for new growth.
While Salisbury's thoroughfare system is not as overburdened as some cities today, two significant deficiencies in the City's street system can be identified: (1) the lack of a completed beltway around the urban core, and (2) the lack of an alternate east-west artery through the central City. The second deficiency creates rated problems of truck and other heavy traffic traveling through the heart of the City on Innes Street. Cutbacks in State and Federal funding for new road construction are causing the City to make greater use of its existing system of streets. It is also critically important that the City's existing major and minor thoroughfares be protected from further losses in their design efficiency by discouraging poorly developed strip commercialization and excessive driveway cuts.
Throughout the planning process, an extensive public involvement program was conducted to identify issues and determine their relative degree of importance to residents of the planning area. Building upon this information, the Strategic Growth Plan Task Force reviewed, modified and endorsed a number of specific Policy Statements for consideration by the Salisbury City Council. The Policies which are presented in this document are the results of this process; as officially adopted Policies of the City, they will serve as the basis for future decisions on capital improvements, ordinances, zoning matters, subdivision approvals, and other similar matters.
Some of the Policies make reference to specially mapped areas; the Growth Strategy Map contained in the Strategic Growth Plan illustrates these areas. The five areas may be defined as follows:
Planning Study Area - Lands located within the City of Salisbury and that portion of unincorporated Rowan County upon which the City's growth management and urban area development decisions may have a significant impact through the year 2000.
Urban Growth Area - Includes that portion of the planning study area, some portions of which can be expected to develop at an urban level of density through the year 2000.
Primary Growth Area - That portion of the urban growth area where urban level services or facilities are already in place or can be provided most cost effectively. This is the area where near term growth and development is to be especially encouraged.
Secondary Growth Area - That portion of the urban growth area where urban level services can be provided by the City, but on a lower priority basis than in the primary growth area.
Rural Area - That portion of the planning study area that is influenced by urban area growth forces, but within which urban level development should be discouraged through at least the year 2000. Urban level services and associated development densities are not planned for this area, except in case by case evaluations of major economic development projects.
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