Comprehensive Plan Update for the City of Salisbury

Planning for a healthy, strong, and resilient future

Introduction

Each municipality in the State of Maryland is required to update its Comprehensive Plan every 10 years to address future growth and planned development. The City of Salisbury is in the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan. This website is a resource that provides an overview of the draft Comprehensive Plan for Salisbury.

The draft plan is informed by previous studies available on the City of Salisbury's Department of Infrastructure and Development webpage along with public engagement efforts. In January and February 2024, an online survey garnered 288 responses, and a public workshop was held to gather input. This input shaped a vision for Salisbury’s sustainable growth and development described herein. Click below to access the Comprehensive Plan

Vision Statement

Salisbury ~The Comfortable Side of Coastal~ is a thriving urban center offering a culturally-rich, economically-diverse, safe, resilient, and attractive place to call home. Salisbury can celebrate its unique cultural and architectural history with new development that is environmentally-sensitive, inclusive, and complimentary to the historic fabric while still attractive and functional for contemporary lifestyles.

Existing Conditions

Demographics

This map shows different demographic variables within the municipal growth boundary using data from the 5-Year 2021 American Community Survey (ACS).

As of 2021, the city of Salisbury has a total population of 32,850 with 53% of people being of minority or mixed-race. Since 2010, there has been a 13% growth in population and the current population density is 2,363 people per square mile.

Land Use

Within the current city limits, the land use types with the greatest allocation are residential, commercial, and agricultural areas which take up nearly two thirds of the city. With the growth boundary, the city will expand to primarily include forest, agricultural and low-density residential areas. 2010 Land Use data is provided by the Maryland Department of Planning.

Environmentally Sensitive Areas

The city of Salisbury is located between the Lower Wicomico River and Wicomico River Head Watersheds. Along the Wicomico river, there are coastal flooding risk zones, FEMA floodplains and nuisance flood zones that overlap with critical cultural and economic development areas.

Community Facilities

Salisbury offers multiple public amenities including 39 schools, 24 medical centers, and over 320 acres of parkland. This map shows all public service facilities.

Transportation Network

This map represents the roadways, parking lots, bus routes, railroads and bike paths throughout the city.

Existing Housing Conditions

Land Use and Municipal Growth

The land use goal for the City of Salisbury is to provide equitable, sustainable, and flexible growth that accommodates evolving technologies and innovations.

The guiding principles and strategies include consolidating and simplifying land use zones for greater flexibility, integrating new typologies to promote compact and livable communities, and establishing design guidelines to preserve neighborhood character.

This map shows the current boundary for the City of Salisbury as well as the proposed growth area that will add roughly 12,000 acres to the municipality, more than doubling in size.

Economic Development & Jobs

The City of Salisbury aims to foster community-based economic development, positioning itself as the economic hub of the Eastern Shore by supporting locally-owned small businesses, promoting tourism, expanding job-training opportunities, and encouraging major institutions like Salisbury University and TidalHealth.

Additionally, the city seeks to attract investments from businesses and corporations in various sectors, including healthcare, research, manufacturing, and food processing, while expanding industrial development to create skilled-trade and blue-collar job opportunities.

Housing and Neighborhood Conservation

The housing goal for the city of Salisbury is to increase the variety and availability of housing stock to accommodate diverse household sizes, price ranges, and lifestyles. This includes encouraging the development of apartments and condos downtown, preserving the character of established neighborhoods, and expanding new housing developments as the city grows.

Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on increasing housing opportunities for low-income, moderate-income, and fixed-income residents, as well as for aging individuals and those with disabilities.

 The city also supports the creation of accessory dwelling units within single-family properties and encourages renovations and upgrades to existing older housing stock to meet evolving needs.

Transportation

The city's transportation goal is to ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods through a connected, multimodal transportation network.

Strategies include better road safety to curb speeding, improved traffic flow by encouraging walking, biking, and transit use, and enhanced pedestrian connections to bus stops.

The city also plans to boost scooter and shared mobility device usage, expand public electric vehicle chargers, and designate truck routes to reduce freight traffic in residential and downtown areas.

Community Facilities

The 2010 comprehensive plan estimated Salisbury’s population would grow to 40,085 residents by 2030, with projections now reaching 41,291 by 2040. The Community Facilities Element aims to guide the establishment, maintenance, and delivery of vital services, including schools, parks, sewerage, water systems, police, fire protection, and garbage collection.

Key goals include ensuring adequate public services, efficiently utilizing existing facilities, and expanding to meet population growth. Sustainable practices are recommended, such as integrating green building guidelines to achieve LEED certification and encouraging adaptive reuse.

Coordination with the Wicomico County Board of Education and Wicomico County Parks and Recreation is emphasized to ensure that educational and park facilities meet the needs of the growing population.

Water Resources

The water resources goals for the City of Salisbury are to provide clean and reliable delivery of potable water to residents, collect and treat wastewater at a state-of-the-art facility to protect public health, manage stormwater and nuisance flooding, improve the water quality of the Wicomico River, and upgrade and repair aging sewer and water infrastructure.

To meet water resource goals, several critical strategies have been outlined. These involve modernizing and repairing old sewer and water systems, setting new standards for wastewater pretreatment, and tackling emerging contaminants like PFAS in water treatment processes.

Enhancing stormwater management, erosion control, and ensuring effective drainage in urban areas are priorities. Adopting Smart Growth policies, such as compact design, is suggested. Local governments find it more cost-effective to provide and maintain services like water and sewer in denser neighborhoods than in spread-out areas.

Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency

The City of Salisbury’s sustainability and resiliency goals are to preserve, protect, and enhance natural resources and green space to provide a healthy, clean, and green environment adaptable to changes in climate. Improving green space, enhancing green infrastructure, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions can help make progress locally towards broader national, State, and regional resiliency goals.

To support Salisbury's sustainability and resiliency goals, strategies include improving infrastructure, enhancing stormwater management, and creating more green spaces to mitigate flood risks and foster a healthier environment. Furthermore, developing emergency preparedness plans and expanding public sewer services ensure community safety and decrease pollution, while anti-littering campaigns help maintain environmental cleanliness. Collectively, these measures contribute to a sustainable and resilient future for Salisbury.