Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Yesterday the Salisbury Planning Board voted 7-2 in favor of a special-use permit allowing government uses in the West End Plaza. Next week their recommendation will be presented to the Salisbury City Council. City council is expected to give their blessings. In reality the county commissioners are moving the Veterans Service Office, the Board of Elections, and the Sheriff’s Office storage out to the West End Plaza. The space move is much required and in reality only moves a handful of county employees to another area of the city.
The county requested the city add, through the special-use permit, “government services” to the allowed uses under its existing highway business zoning.
During the planning board discussion David Post touched on the “rumor” flying around since the Salisbury Mall purchase when he mentioned the story about moving the court system and other county offices en masse to the West End Plaza. This popular downtown rumor sparked a brief resistance movement and became the battle cry for some folks running for county commissioner. It also led to a gross misperception of a perfectly sound purchase of a 27 year old “repurposed mall”.
Repurposed malls are flourishing across the United States and Canada. Their mixed use repurposing leads to great savings for governmental and business office space, retail, storage, medical clinics, veteran services and boards of election, restaurants, and after school literacy programs among other valuable purposes.
Back to the “rumor”. How did this rumor about the court system pulling up stakes, along with a vast herd of county employees, and heading to the West End Plaza in the largest exodus since Moses led his people out of Egypt? No–it wasn’t started by the city’s most famous former cult leader, ardent defender of Jon Barber’s right to be thrown at the mercy of an independent entity, and lawyer for the alleged king of Hillbilly Heroin doctors–the attorney who singlehandedly sent more readers to the Rowan Free Press through his loud and defamatory denunciations of it. Nope–not him.
The “rumor” was hatched one Saturday morning at the Republican’s Men’s Breakfast Club when Craig Pierce, in one magical moment of ire, cautioned our “mutually terminated” city manager Doug Paris that he might need get his ducks in a row and “Get his head screwed on tight” because they’re going to pull everyone out of downtown. So much for Craig’s diplomatic future at the U.N. Craig was more than annoyed that Paris overstepped his boundaries and repeated a distorted version of closed session commission information. It was at this very moment the “rumor” started.
It was never anything more than a rumor because none of the other county commissioners or the former county manager ever voiced any intentions either then or later of a large scale move out of downtown Salisbury. At the time they didn’t have exact plans about what would specifically go into the West End Plaza. Their thinking centered on much needed space for the board of elections and Sherriff’s Office storage. That was it. (Although I wouldn’t be opposed if city hall was moved next to the Sheriff’s Office storage so the Sheriffs Office could keep a close eye on city hall)
Think about the West End Plaza:
• The West End Plaza is only 27 years old, got a clean bill of health from construction engineers, and is a sturdy structure that will last many, many years into the future. False claims that the West End Plaza is a decrepit structure were created by those fearful the Plaza would ignite a mass exodus from Salisbury’s vacancy marred and blighted downtown–a very expensive place to lease and rent. There was never a plan to pull the downtown county offices out of downtown. That was a fabrication created in the city manager’s office to galvanize downtown business owners against the commissioners.
• The West End Plaza keeps its surrounding neighborhood alive and attracts many to the businesses and restaurants on Plaza’s periphery. If the West End Plaza was abandoned or demolished, it would greatly harm its surrounding neighborhood and Salisbury.
• Retail and restaurants in the West End Plaza contribute several kinds of taxes to both the City of Salisbury and Rowan County. For example K & W cafeteria owns its own building, but not it’s land. K & W pays property taxes on its building. The West End Plaza retail and restaurants pay state sales tax on goods sold and local sales tax on goods sold. These taxes are gathered by the state who redistributes the sales tax money to the Salisbury and Rowan County by a formula. Further the retail and restaurants pay business license fees (privilege license tax) in Salisbury. Owners also pay federal and state income tax as well as tax on utilities they use.
Picture the ecological and economic effects on its surrounding community if the West End Plaza was boarded-up or torn down.
The rumor needs to be put to rest. It’s continued existence harms both Salisbury and the county.
