Pink granite service station will be moved to make room for new mixed-use development
It’s not often that people on both sides of a contentious issue end up coming together, Councilman Brian Miller said at the Salisbury City Council meeting Tuesday night.
He was talking about the pink granite service station at 201 E. Innes St., a contributing historic property downtown that has been a candidate for demolition since September 2016.
The Historic Preservation Commission voted that month to delay the demolition of the building for one year — the maximum amount of time that a demolition can be delayed by the commission.
The one-year delay is intended to give time for stakeholders to consider every preservation option possible.
When the request to demolish the property first came up last year, the Historic Salisbury Foundation and influential historic preservation advocates lobbied strongly to preserve the building.
Architect Pete Bogle of The Bogle Firm wanted to demolish the station so that a mixed-use development could be constructed.
On Tuesday night, the City Council had to decide whether to issue a demolition permit for the building.
The granite service station has been vacant for at least 10 years, according to Bogle.
There were four questions that the historic foundation wanted to address with Bogle, all of which were some form of the question, “Can the building be preserved?”
Bogle said, in every case, it makes more sense for the service station to be demolished and the property repurposed.
Over the course of the year, the foundation and Bogle cooperated and compromised until an agreement was made that both parties could live with.
(Salisbury Post, 11/22/17)