It has been over ten years since the 1977 report Comprehensive Facilities and Program Development Plan for Parks and Recreation, City of Salisbury was prepared. In addition to being ten years out of date, the plan also focused on a much smaller geographic area, primarily limited to the city limits. The planning area for the 1988 Strategic Growth Plan encompasses a much broader geographic area in and around greater Salisbury and seeks to account for past, present and (particularly) future population growth within that area. Therefore, the open space and recreation policies contained in the Strategic Growth Plan are particularly future oriented and deal with the need to plan for and set aside appropriate sites and areas to keep pace with the anticipated growth of the planning area.
Within the context of an overall plan for future park development and open space preservation, several key items were identified during the planning process. First, to maximize the utility of future park sites while minimizing acquisition costs, natural areas, watershed, and/or flood prone areas should receive special consideration for acquisition or public easements. Properties which have visual, cultural or historic significance should be given even greater weight. All land acquisition should be done as far as possible in advance of actual need, as soon as a projected need can be confirmed. Again, the emphasis is to acquire critical or strategic areas now before future development drives up land costs.
One open space concept which received particularly strong support from area residents was an open space greenway system. The greenway concept, which is receiving significant attention across the country currently, encourages the use of natural corridors such as river and creek floodplains, for linear park systems. These natural corridors can be supplemented as necessary by manmade corridors such as utility and transportation rights-of-way to assemble a complete, inter- connected system of linear open space ways within a community. Judging from the strong public support for the concept, a greenway system should be a primary consideration in the development of an updated park, recreation, and open space master plan for the greater Salisbury area.
| POLICY 9.1 | Future park development and open space preservation shall be carefully planned to provide for the rational and equitable distribution of recreation and open space opportunities within the planning area. |
| POLICY 9.2 | In determining future sites for park, recreation and open space facilities, multiple objectives for natural area conservation, visual enhancement, promotion of culture and history, watershed and floodprone area protection, etc. Shall be considered. |
| POLICY 9.3 | Provision of open space and recreation facilities in private development shall be encouraged to complement the demand for publicly financed facilities. |
| POLICY 9.4 | The identification and appropriate recreational development of a system of open space greenways within the planning area shall be encouraged. The use of natural corridors, such as stream floodplains, and secondarily, manmade corridors, such as utility and transportation rights of way and easements shall be emphasized. |
| POLICY 9.5 | Land acquisition for new recreation sites in advance of need shall be encouraged to achieve desirable locations at cost effective levels. |
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