Weisner: Concerns over City of Salisbury siding with developers

In June of 2023, Mayor Jack Heath and the City Council, at a hastily called special meeting and after deliberating in a closed session, voted to sell three valuable downtown parking lots to Salisbury Town Center Apartments LLC, (STCA) despite a public hearing where the vast majority of the speakers voiced opposition to this sale. In addition to the extremely low price of $275,000, the City Council agreed to build a $10 million parking garage to replace the parking just eliminated.

The zoning in downtown Salisbury allows the highest housing density in the city. But this wasn’t enough for the developers of STCA, who want to build 222 luxury apartments, a density almost double what is permitted by code. The Salisbury Board of Zoning Appeals held a public hearing on this issue. At the long and heavily attended hearing, numerous individuals spoke up, expressing concern that the increased density would have a negative impact on existing business and current residents. The Board ended up denying the Special Exception, citing the adverse impact increased density would have “on the livability, value or appropriate development of abutting properties and the surrounding area”. But that is not the end of the story.

The developers of STCA appealed the decision of the Board of Appeals to the Circuit Court to overturn this decision. The Circuit Court denied their appeal. So STCA filed a second time for reconsideration by the Circuit Court. It was denied a second time. Still not willing to drop the matter, STCA has filed an appeal to the Appellate Court of Maryland to overturn the Circuit Court rulings in order to build 105 more apartments than the 117 allowed by code.

The Salisbury City Council recently hired legal counsel to join with STCA in its appeal to overturn the decision of the Circuit Court and the City’s own Board of Appeals. It is astonishing that, after the court upheld the finding of the Board of Appeals, which determined the higher density exception would adversely impact the community, the City Council has hired lawyers to oppose its own Board and to side with the developer.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of the City Council and the former Mayors siding with developers. Three examples. In 2021 the City sold the Salisbury Marina, 2.4 acres of prime waterfront property, to a developer for $1 (one dollar). 33 years earlier, in 1988, the City paid $743,000 for this portion of the property. In addition, the City agreed to lease the harbor to this developer for $1 (one dollar) per year for 50 years with the City retaining responsibility for maintaining all the docks, piers and bulkheads at City taxpayer expense.

Early last year, the City sold the 3 acre parking lot located by the intersection of Rt 13 and Rt 50 to another real estate developer. It was assessed for $1.7 million and sold for $75,000. The developer indicated they plan on building a hotel but there is nothing in the deed that requires them to do so. As a matter of fact, the developer has already applied, under the City’s Here Is Home tax incentive program, to build 250 multi-family apartments on this site. None of these projects are required to have an affordable housing component.

In November, 2023, the City approved the sale of the 60 space parking lot and a 1/3 acre waterfront park on East Market Street to a developer for a luxury apartment project. The assessed value of these properties was $559,600; the selling price was $19,000. And why would the city ever consider selling a waterfront park when greenspace, in the heart of the City, is so rare and so important?

Looking back at all these transactions, plus the property tax discounts (Horizons program) and development fee waivers (Here Is Home) benefiting developers, enacted by the City Council under Mayors Day and Heath, one has to wonder, who are they really representing?

Michael C Weisner
Salisbury resident