SALISBURY, Md. – A competing petition is making the rounds in Salisbury, as some downtown business owners complain about the difficulty of operating a business downtown.
Business owner Nicole Blackwater has created a petition titled “Help Save Downtown Salisbury” to change city planning laws to allow more housing developments to be built. He insisted that.
“We’re working to break the cycle that downtown Salisbury has been in for decades. It’s definitely been a struggle for years,” Blackwater said. “This is an opportunity to break that cycle. More development projects here will bring more people, more businesses, more jobs. And what we really want is a downtown We want more people to see it.”
Blackwater said it’s difficult to attract customers, not just business owners who want to open a store downtown. Alfred Brewer wanted to open a business downtown, but was advised to stay away from downtown Salisbury.
“We were almost turned away from going downtown, not by developers or real estate people, but by local residents, who were like, ‘Don’t do that, it’s a death sentence,'” Brewer said.
But another petition, “Don’t strangle downtown Salisbury,” is also active. This is supported by Mayor Randy Taylor, who argues that the city is reaching its limits.
“We don’t have the capacity to accommodate this level of density, we don’t fit in with downtown accessibility, we don’t fit in with the square footage of downtown accessibility, and ultimately it’s going to negatively impact downtown businesses and take away business. I think it’s going to be very difficult to do “downtown,” Taylor said. “Density is not a bad thing. It’s not the enemy. But we have to do it within our ability to have easy access and convenient parking.”
Taylor says it’s simple math.
“It’s not a difficult calculation, but somehow we got to this point and this is where we are,” Taylor said.
On Thursday, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission will decide whether to change city ordinances to allow increased housing density.
