FAITH — Sam Henline, the zoning administrator for Faith, presented a plan for future growth and annexation to the Faith Board of Aldermen during their meeting Tuesday.

Henline has been working with the planning and zoning staffs of Salisbury and Granite Quarry to find an equitable future growth plan that would work for all three towns. The plan he presented involved adding an access to Interstate 85 through Peeler Road.

Henline also noted to the board that Faith is currently the only municipality in Rowan County that does not have access to any major thoroughfares. Every other municipality in Rowan County either has direct access to I-85 or a way to access it through a thoroughfare, such as U.S. Hwy. 52.

“This gives us a viable access to a major corridor and it gives us possibilities of having industrial or major facilities like the fulfillment centers. There’s areas out there where you can put those and it’s going to be more marketable because you’re going to have heavy truck traffic that can come in off the interstate,” said Henline.

The plan would allow Faith to add those industrial areas in the undeveloped land closer to I-85 while keeping the downtown area of Faith as a historic area.

The plan has taken a long time to work out between the three cities, and there is no guarantee that the current plan proposed by Henline will be the final one. The current proposal is a compromise with Salisbury in that it allows Salisbury to keep its satellite annexations, such as the area on Peeler Road just south of Love’s Travel Stop.

Some members of the board did wonder about potential other areas for growth. Alderman Gary Gardner asked about the areas on Webb Road and the potential for an empty building on the railroad to assist with future development plans.

Henline also brought up that if the currently proposed plan comes to fruition, the town may look at putting a corridor between Saint Paul Church and Peeler roads.

The preliminary plans for future growth had been previously brought before the board during its June meeting. At that time, Salisbury’s proposed plans completely cut Faith off from I-85 access. This would have removed Faith’s ability to extend past Old Concord Road in the future.

During the discussion two months ago, the board also noted that the town is not ready for the future development at the current moment. The purpose of the future growth plan is to allow Faith to keep the possibility of future growth open instead of having all avenues of development removed when the town is ready.

At the end of the discussion, the board voted to send the letter including Faith’s proposal to the city managers of Salisbury and Granite Quarry.