The office and institutional development category provides for offices, institutions, commercial activities not involving the sale of merchandise, and higher density residential uses. Office and institutional areas are intended to serve two major functions. The first is to provide a support function for commercial areas. The second function is to provide a transitional land use between residential uses and land uses which are more intensive. Doctors offices, law offices and architectural and engineering firms are typical of the office and institutional development category. Office and institutional development generates traffic which is intermediate between that generated by residential areas and commercial areas. Therefore, it is important that these areas be carefully controlled to ensure that they do not simply become extensions of nearby commercial areas.
In the preparation of the Salisbury Strategic Growth Plan, much of the public discussion focused on the "appropriate" use of office and institutional development as a transition between the central business district of the city and the surrounding downtown area residential neighborhoods. In some instances, the need for office and institutional development on the perimeter of the central business district was clear, while in other instances residential development successfully abuts the central business district with no adverse impact on the neighborhood. The effective administration of this policy will therefore require special care and attention to the specific circumstances of each development/zoning proposal.
Care should also be taken to see that office and institutional development does not become simply another form of linear strip development along the area's major thoroughfares. Office developments oftentimes lend themselves to office park configurations, and this form of development should be encouraged wherever possible.
Finally, it should be noted that office uses can frequently be successfully located in the upper stories of downtown area buildings. Offices normally do not require direct street frontage to market their services and can provide a convenient vertical transitional use between the retail uses of the ground floor and potential residential uses of floors higher up in the building.
| POLICY 6.1 | Office and institutional development may be encouraged to locate as a transitional land use between activities of higher intensity and those of lower intensity. |
| POLICY 6.2 | Linear stripping of offices along thoroughfares shall be discouraged in favor of planned office parks or clusters of offices with common access, parking, etc. |
| POLICY 6.3 | Office development shall be encouraged to locate in the central business district. |
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