SALISBURY — Dozens of people appeared at the Salisbury City Hall on Tuesday to learn about and comment on the conceptual plans for the “Reimagining Main Street” project.

The city will be accepting comments either through email or mail until Aug. 20, said Sada Troutman, downtown development director for Downtown Salisbury, Inc. The pre-addressed form can be found at salisburync.gov/mainstreet, which can either be mailed or emailed to City Transportation Director Wendy Brindle at wbrin@salisburync.gov.

After Aug. 20, all comments and feedback received from the public will be put in front of the team for discussion.

The meetings on Tuesday showed the “90-percent plans,” said Troutman, and brought members of the design team and city engineers together to answer any questions that residents may have had.

One of the large changes to the six-block area between Horah and Kerr streets were sidewalk “bump-outs” at intersections and certain mid-block locations, which would allow for more sidewalk space for pedestrian traffic and sidewalk amenities such as outdoor seating space, bike racks, benches, pedestrian lighting and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

“I was glad to see that new development coming into town, because you look at Statesville and the little bit they did downtown really enhanced the city and created a lot of people coming back at night and the weekends for restaurants and casual dining outside and so forth. I think it’s going to create more pedestrian traffic,” said Salisbury Planning Board member David Midgley at the board’s meeting on Tuesday.

Gary Warner, who works in planning and landscape architecture for engineering design and consulting firm ESP Associates, said that construction is currently expected to begin on the project in late spring of 2025. The project will be implemented in segments, so the entire area will not be closed down at one. At least one sidewalk will remain open at all times and traffic will be detoured through both Church Street and Lee Street.

Warner also said that parts of the sidewalk, which is being reconstructed, that lay in front of important buildings, such as the Rowan County Courthouse or city hall, will be built to highlight those areas of the city.

The city and North Carolina Department of Transportation will also be taking the opportunity to replace and upgrade the utilities in the area, said Troutman.

The road and sidewalk improvements represent phase two of the project, which has been under consideration since 2019. Phase one of the project included re-marking and resurfacing performed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Members of the Salisbury City Council have recently visited other cities in the area that have implemented downtown improvements, including Kannapolis in September of 2023 and Concord in January of this year.

“When we went and visited Concord, I had the opportunity to talk to some of the business owners and I think we’re learning a lesson from Concord. There was not a sense of community built around this (in Concord), it was more like ‘boom,’ tractors showing up, bulldozers showing up. There was no kind of connection or relationship there. So I appreciate this effort to prepare downtown and build a sense of camaraderie around this,” said Councillor Anthony Smith during the council’s meeting on July 16.

The project is the subject of a grant that was awarded to the city by the Cabarrus-Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization in June of 2023. The grant totaled $9,283,444, with $7,426,755 being fully reimbursed to the city once the project is completed. The remaining $1,856,689 was required to be matched by the city.

This project has been in the works in some form since 2019, when the city first requested design plans to improve the safety, mobility and appearance of a 10 block section of Main Street.

In 2021, a Main Street concept plan was presented to city council that looked at a number of other North Carolina cities who have followed similar plans successfully that included items like bike lanes, which called for reducing travel lanes from four to three, and creating bump-outs alongside restaurants to create side-walk dining. The goal has been to improve the safety and flow of traffic, to encourage pedestrian use of sidewalks and to create a space where visitors want to spend time.