Salisbury mayor expresses doubts about downtown housing development, zoning density

SALISBURY, Md. – “I’ve always decided, it’s a 10 pound bag of potatoes trying to go in a 5 pound bag. It’s really never been, in my view, a thoughtful project for the downtown.”

Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor expressed doubts about a housing project proposed for the downtown area.

Before those units can be built, Salisbury Town Centers Apartments, LLC will have to get the city’s housing density code changed.

“What they’re trying to do is get the density per acre increased from 40 to 80 [units] to accommodate their approach. That, of course creates, all kinds of other problems,” Mayor Taylor said.

Among the “other problems” referenced by Mayor Taylor, parking remains possibly the biggest. The development would replace lots 1, 11, and 15 downtown with new structures, leaving parking as a concern for some local business owners.

“Just the limited parking, where would the customers park and then also feels safe as well? I’m not 100% against it, but I have questions,” said Brandy Nichole Wallace, owner of The Hair Clinic Rx on W Main Street.

In an open letter published Sunday, the Downtown Salisbury Business Alliance claimed that Mayor Taylor has purposely been delaying progress with the housing development, a charge the Mayor denied, saying that plans for a new performing arts center downtown have completely changed the equation: “That’s absolutely not the case, I’ve been working behind the scenes and had a design team come in and do a new overlay drawing to try to accommodate the performing arts [center] as well as a potential mixed use residential project downtown.”

Mayor Taylor said that, in some ways, Salisbury might have to rethink its approach to building up the downtown area. “We just can’t think of a single developer and a single project, we have to be more interdependent in our thinking.”

A staff report on the proposed density code amendment will be presented at a work session Thursday, as well as a presentation from developer who is trying to amend that density code.

Salisbury Town Center Apartments, LLC has previously been denied when asking for exceptions to Salisbury’s normal zoning density, both by the Salisbury board of appeals and the Wicomico County Circuit Court.