To better plan for the provision of municipal services to future growth areas, it is useful to visualize on a map the entire planning area with regard to the desired density and character of development. By showing growth areas on a map, the City can help direct where various forms of development and redevelopment might best occur, and where natural and cultural resources should be conserved. The three types of growth areas identified on the Salisbury 2020 Growth Strategy Map (See Map, Back of Plan) are the Primary Growth Area, the Secondary Growth Area, and Conservation and Resource Management Areas.

The Secondary Growth Area includes properties to which urban services could be extended within the next twenty years, but with greater difficulty and at a greater cost than for properties in the Primary Growth Area. In addition, not all properties within the Secondary Growth Area are expected to be developed within the next twenty years. To do so would mean that, within just two decades, the City would sprawl over an area some five times larger than the present city limits.

Rather, this plan sets forth a preferred development pattern known as Neighborhood and Village Communities, in which land areas most suited for development receive more intensive, neighborhood type development, while surrounding, less suitable land areas remain in parks, greenways or other permanent open space. (More on this concept below) The Secondary Growth Area has been applied to those parts of the City and unincorporated Rowan County that, due to topography and other factors, could reasonably expect to be served by the water and sewer services of the City of Salisbury in the foreseeable future.

and store flood waters and prevent flood damage and loss of life and property), natural areas (which provide habitat for wildlife and opportunities for study), and cultural areas (which preserve the heritage and cultural roots of an area). As such, Conservation and Resource Management Areas should not be developed at all (preserved), or if developed, should be done so in a very limited manner characterized by careful planning and cautious attention to the conservation of important environmental features. Urban services, such as centralized water and sewer, should generally not be provided in these areas as a catalyst to stimulate intense development.

Though the Growth Strategy Map covers a relatively large geographic area, the intent of the Map is not to encourage a uniform blanketing of the landscape with suburban sprawl style development, or any other kind of development for that matter. On the contrary, the polices of this plan, when used in conjunction with the Growth Strategy Map, are intended to encourage new developments to occur in neighborhood or village like patterns, with certain retail services designed into the neighborhood or village center. The purpose of this pattern is to discourage unnecessary increases in traffic volumes on the City’s few main roads by encouraging residents to shop for their basic needs closer to home, perhaps within walking or biking distance. At the same time, the compact nature of these developments, typically involving smaller lots, is intended to allow for the allocation of permanent open space around and between such neighborhoods. This development pattern is entirely consistent with the desires of City residents to preserve open space and the historic, small town character of Salisbury, while allowing growth to occur in a managed way.