South Suburban Area Plan Update

Plan Recommendation Highlights

The following recommendations are among those included in the South Suburban Area Plan Update (PDF):

• Develop Activity Centers along growth corridors as transit-oriented, high-density, mixed-use nodes. Buildings in Activity Centers should be placed close to the street with parking located to the side or rear of the buildings and provide pedestrian and vehicular access connections between uses.
• Consolidate office and commercial uses at existing commercial/office locations, in designated Activity Centers, and in Special Land Use Condition Areas.
• Encourage rehabilitation/redevelopment of older and underutilized commercial sites in the planning area with building façade improvements, street yards and buffer yard plantings, and parking area improvements.
• Neighborhoods should be protected from inappropriate residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional encroachment.
• Continue revitalization of vacant or underutilized industrial sites in the planning area. Existing industrial sites could be converted to other uses compatible with surrounding residential areas. Focus on the infilling of existing industrial parks near Old Lexington Road.
• Provide sidewalks on at least one side of all new roads and on both sides of roads that provide access to institutions and public facilities.
• Establish at least one new community park that is easily accessible from a main road.
• Establish a new recreation center in the planning area to serve the southward growth of Winston-Salem.
• Develop walkable neighborhoods and create a network of bikeways, sidewalks, and greenways will provide for needed transportation choices for all segments of the population.
• Begin construction of the Salem Creek Greenway Extension in the next 5 to 7 years.
• Retain existing historic resources.
• Support the Voluntary Agriculture District provisions for farmers who want to keep their land in agricultural use.