SALISBURY — With dots in various colors, city officials, city employees, downtown Salisbury stakeholders and business owners mapped what they value on Main Street and the downtown area on Tuesday.

From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the McAdams Design Team, a planning and design group out of Charlotte, facilitated activities to allow them to share values, character and the vision that defines downtown and Main Street from the past to today to the future.

McAdams was hired by the city to look at short-term changes to the street and a long-term plan to give the entire streetscape a makeover. The firm is looking at Main Street from the railroad tracks to Monroe Street.

Participants were asked to fill out a downtown master plan survey, which will be made public soon to get more feedback, on their downtown activities, how they get to downtown, what downtown has to offer and what parts of streetscape are important.

Then, participants were asked to rank their three favorite places in the downtown district, including restaurants, workplaces, churches and the future Bell Tower Green park.

Afterward, they were given nine dots to place on three posters — community values, reasons for visiting and streetscape elements. If participants felt another item was not listed, they could grab a Post It note to add something that wasn’t mentioned but they value.

An additional poster allowed them to provide additional comments.

City Planning Director Hannah Jacobson said the input session was intended to gain perspectives and priorities from those who experience and work in downtown Salisbury the most.

The city has been working on three projects with the downtown master plan, the streetscape plan and a parking study. The city decided to combine the efforts.

“It was a perfect storm of all these different planning efforts happening at virtually the same time,” Jacobson said. “We thought it would be smart to pair them together so we’re not having too much plan fatigue. We’re reaching out to people in one singular effort.”

Dan Lambert, senior landscape architect at the McAdams Design Team, said it allows them to get three things done at once. They will be concentrating solely on the streetscape project but will keep the master plan and parking in mind.

Toby Richards, who is a retired business owner and downtown resident, spoke after participating in the input session. Richards said she has seen the city get feedback about downtown Salisbury but nothing has come to fruition. 

“If that happens, maybe then the stores will be filled,” Richards said.

The top value of those who participated Tuesday was the economic vitality of downtown Salisbury.

Events are a way to do that, drawing on College Night Out, which brings college students downtown.

“You have to have something to bring them downtown,” Richards said.

Lisa Pope, of City Consignment, said she hopes to see more “smart growth.”

With streetscapes come an obvious conversation about parking.

Richards said she wants to see longer-term parking after getting numerous tickets unloading her groceries. She sees it as a “really big issue.”

But Pope is less concerned about parking, since walking several blocks can be exercise while enjoying downtown.

“Walking a distance is not a negative thing,” she said.

Lambert said they want to create “spaces where people come downtown and stay for a while.”

The input session is the first of many. Next month, the McAdams Design Team will be at events and doing pop-ups to get more feedback. The survey will be available online.

Jacobson said there is no predetermined plan and that staff will be relying on what the community says.

“We’re approaching this with an open mind,” Jacobson said. “We don’t have a particular design solution. We want to hear what people have to say. We want to see what the data says. We want to hear what our experts have to say about it.”

Lambert said Tuesday was just scratching the surface and throughout the process wants to have transparency and keep the public informed to avoid pitfalls.