SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council approved a rezoning on Tuesday that removes a Fulton Heights four-plex from a Historic Residential zoning, a change that neighbors and the applicant said would actually help restore the historic building.

“I’m with the Historic Salisbury Foundation, and if you were just to look at the black-and-white what are they asking for, it would appear that we would be here to oppose. Taking anything out of being zoned Historic Residential would seem counterintuitive, but in this particular case it’s something that’s required for this project to move forward,” said HSF Executive Director Kimberly Stieg.

The building in question stands at 200 Mitchell Avenue in the Fulton Heights neighborhood. The Fulton Heights Historic District calls the house the T.A. Ludwick House and states that it was built sometime in the early 1900s, specifically estimating that it was built in approximately 1908. The house served as multi-family housing by the 1930s, with the interior containing four separate apartments.

“The footprint of each of the four apartments is almost identical, but they are all super cool as far as the architecture and the historic fabric that is in there. If you were to turn this back into single-family it would destroy all of that. One of the coolest features is in the entrance when you first walk in and you see those built-in mailboxes. You just can’t recreate that. There are central hallways in each apartment, so if you were to turn it back into single-family it just wouldn’t make sense,” said Stieg.

The petition was submitted by Ben Fisher of Salisbury-based developer Old Stone Investments. Fisher said during the meeting that the request would allow the company, which is buying the property, to divide it into two lots, one containing the building at 200 Mitchell Avenue and the other containing the garage and apartment building located at 1220 Crosby Street. The city states that homes in a Historic Residential district shall not be subdivided beyond a single-family use.

The petition also included a request for a conditional district overlay. The overlay would allow the minimum lot depth to be reduced from 100 feet to 99.45 feet, the setback for the garage to be reduced to 1 foot from 5 feet and for the setback for the rear of the structure to be reduced from 25 feet to 8.28 feet. The only uses permitted under the overlay are single family residential and multi-family residential with four units or less, which Senior Planner Victoria Bailiff said was a self-imposed restriction by the applicant.

The Ludwick House would then be turned over to the HSF, who would restore the home and install protective covenants protecting the historic features of the building, said Fisher. Old Stone Investments would retain ownership of the other building and operate it as a property manager.

“We didn’t realize at the time that we were going to be taking on such a doozy, but the neighbors reached out to us. This whole thing evolved organically. I think we’ve come up with a creative solution to work around a tough situation and there’s a great opportunity here for us to work in partnership with a non-profit, Historic Salisbury Foundation, and with the city as well. It’s a great example of private, public, non-profit partnership to make problems like this go away,” said Fisher.

Neighbors who spoke at the public hearing on Tuesday described the house as an interesting and beautiful house that’s exterior had been allowed to deteriorate. Geoffrey Hoy said that the house was “ugly as sin,” while Bryan Wymbs, who lives across the street, said that the house had become an eyesore.

“It is lovely. Ten, 12 years ago, it was open so we could go through it and see these apartments as neighbors. We cheered on the guy who was going to do something, and he didn’t. Now we have this very creative splitting of the property and HSF to take the old place and bring it up to something that can be marketed while the developers take care of the newer apartment building on the rear of the property. It goes against all of the specifics of the zoning regulations, but it makes sense. Let’s get it done and let’s take care of this old house and turn it into a beautiful building,” said Hoy.

After the hearing, the members of the city council voted unanimously to approve the rezoning and to apply the proposed conditional district overlay. 

“I have some memory that 50-something years ago this same property was a train wreck. Somebody bought it and fixed it and got it where it has the look it has today. I don’t remember it being blue, I remember it being green but you can forget a lot in 50, 55 years. It’s happened all over again, so thank y’all both for doing this,” said Council member David Post.

Mayor Karen Alexander pointed to the asking for and application of the conditional district overlay restrictions as a great example of being creative within the city’s ordinances to solve issues.