Planning
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Planning North Salem Street Corridor Plan

Goal of Plan

The almost mile-long stretch of North Salem Street (old US Highway 1) between US Highway 64 and Hunter Street is a major thoroughfare with two lane section and 60’ right of way bordered by land with predominant RA zoning that moves generally from more rural to less rural as it approaches Apex. The street was downgraded from a major thoroughfare, five lane section, by the Board of Commissioners in 1996. The goal from their resolution reads as follows:

“Whereas the Town of Apex desires to maintain the elements of the landscape that contribute to the attractiveness and historic character of the Town; and, Whereas the current classification of a major thoroughfare would, if built, destroy important historical homes and forever ruin an important gateway to the Town . . . .”

In keeping with this 1996 resolution, the overriding intent of the North Salem Street Corridor Plan is to ensure that the cultural and environmental resources that comprise the character of this primary entrance corridor into Apex are maintained.

Zoning and Land Use

This plan does not propose any changes to the current zoning of the corridor area, but any future rezonings shall be consistent with the Apex Comprehensive Plan’s 2025 Land Use Plan.

Developing in Apex

1. Site Plan Approval - Site Plan review and approval is required prior to any land disturbing or construction activities. A Site Plan Application can be obtained through the Planning Department or found on the Town of Apex website. Site plans are approved by the Board of Commissioners after review by the Technical Review Committee and the Planning Board. Site Plan submittals are due the first Monday of each month.

2. Construction Plan Approval - Construction Plans should be submitted along with a Construction Plan Application to the Engineering Division following Site Plan approval. Construction Plans are reviewed and approved by the Technical Review Committee.

3. Grading Permit - Grading Permits are applied for in conjunction with the Construction Plan submittal by a completing a Request for Plan Approval. Once the Construction Plans are signed by the Town of Apex, the Developer shall install protection fencing and soil and erosion control measures. A Certificate of Compliance will be issued upon inspection and approval of the protection fencing and soil and erosion control measures. Site grading can only begin after all of the above steps have been completed to the satisfaction of the Town.

4. Building Permit - Building Permit Applications are accepted following Construction Plan approval. The process for obtaining building, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical permits , begins with completing and filing a Permit Application. These applications must be accompanied by a completed Checklist. These documents are available at the Building Inspections Office and Town of Apex website.

5. Recordation of Final Plat - After Construction Plans are signed, a plat shall be submitted to the Planning Department for review and approval prior to recordation. Plats must be recorded prior to a Certificate of Occupancy being issued for the project.

6. Certificate of Occupancy - Once the final inspections are satisfactorily completed, the Building Inspections Division will issue a Certificate of Occupancy. The submittal deadline for Rezoning Requests is the first Monday of the month. Annexation requests may be submitted at any time. All deadlines are subject to change. Please see Town of Apex website for current information.

Existing Conditions

Traveling south from US Highway 64 toward Hunter Street

Northern Section
The north end of the corridor is primarily rural single family residential with generous setbacks from the road – surrounded by open fields, white-fenced pastures and ponds. Three non-residential uses also occupy this section. They are a professional surveyor’s office, a retail/wholesale landscape establishment, and a country store. Each of the uses is housed in a characteristically residential or rural structure reflective of early twentieth century Apex architecture and railroad history. None is located in a building with typical commercial appearance or siting. The road sections are shoulder/ditch sections without sidewalks.

Middle Section
The corridor’s middle section is also primarily single family residential, but it is a mixture of old and new architectural styles and orientations to the street. The older, rural residential homes sandwich the new subdivision style development, Haddon Place, with its wide turn lane, new sidewalks, and bermed landscaped buffer. The adjacent property, the home of Dr. John Pearson, meets the street with its grand allee of specimen southern magnolias. A single story rural grocery store turned small specialty shop and most recently art studio, and a new church, with its urban close-to-the road setback and brick wall, breaks the section’s residential pattern of use.

A less than fluid transition between old and new styles of development occurs at the interface between Haddon Place and the open field to the north. The first view of Haddon Place as one rounds the corner toward town is of the bare backs of houses which appear overly large as they rise abruptly out of the field.

Trees canopy part of this section which is predominantly shoulder/ditch construction with several sections of sidewalk dating from 1927 on both sides of the street. Curb/gutter and new sidewalks were installed in connection with the new developments.

Southern Section
The corridor’s southern section continues the mix of old and new with Salem Oaks, a single family cul-de-sac subdivision and The Courtyards at Salem Oaks, a newer urban-setback style office development, next to a row of modest homes with town-scale setback. A new two story downtown-feel storefront retail/office building, Liberty Station, opened in 2003 on the northwest corner of N. Salem and Hunter. A building supply company and asphalt transfer station occupy the eastern side of the street.

The Apex Peakway is slated to be built just north of Salem Oaks. Its exact configuration is yet to be determined, but its east-west impact on the Corridor Plan’s goals should be taken into consideration during the design phase of the project The curb/gutter and sidewalks in this section were installed as part of newer development, although this end of the street is still predominantly comprised of shoulder/ditch sections.

Future Impacts

There are several major projects that will have significant impacts on the appearance and function of the corridor in the future - construction of the Apex Peakway, development of the neo-traditional neighborhood project known as “Trackside,” and the construction of two future collector streets.

The Peakway is scheduled to cross North Salem Street just north of Salem Oaks. The mixed-use Trackside development is anticipated in the area between the two sets of railroad tracks which abut a number of properties fronting on North Salem. The Apex Transportation Plan projects one collector tying in from the west and one from the east of Salem Street.

Since these projects have not moved beyond a conceptual stage, specific impacts cannot be determined at this time, but it is a recommendation and hope of this plan that the North Salem Street corridor, the Peakway crossing, the Trackside development and the collector streets be designed in harmony with one another to create a dynamically unified gateway into town.

In addition, The Town has been awarded just under $140,000 in NCDOT Enhancement funding for sidewalk, drainage, and landscape improvements in the southern section of the corridor between Hunter Street and the proposed Peakway crossing to be completed in 2004-2005.

Area Covered By Plan and Plan's Authority

All properties that have frontage on North Salem Street between Highway 64 and Hunter Street shall be governed by the Corridor Plan. Unless specific Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) sections are referenced in the Plan. This Plan shall establish all development regulations for these properties instead of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).

Development Standards

The Corridor Plan establishes development standards in the following 9 areas:

  1. Street Width and Alignment
    Maintain existing street width and alignment except as required by
    NCDOT for possible turn lanes.
  2. Buffers
    THOROUGHFARE BUFFER
    • There shall be a 30’ major thoroughfare buffer width requirement.
    • There shall be no planting requirement for the thoroughfare buffer,with one exception as explained below*.
    • The thoroughfare buffer shall be kept in existing cover. [For example, open pasture remains open pasture. A wooded edge remains a wooded edge. Pasture and picket fence lines remain intact. Ponds and hedge rows remain. Canopy trees overhanging the road shall remain];
    • *If the designated thoroughfare buffer area along the street frontage is neither open space nor wooded space, such as a dirt or paved parking lot, the pattern of Buffer/RCA to be installed shall be determined contextually according to which will best maintain the street’s mix and flow of field and woods, pasture and canopied road, the balance between open space and green space that defines the corridor as rural.
    • Buffer shall follow the road’s existing contour.
    SIDE AND REAR BUFFERS
    • All side and rear buffer requirements shall be in accordance with UDO Section 8.2.6 ‘Buffering;’
    • However, at the discretion of the Planning Director, buffers shall be reallocated from sides and/or rear of the property to a location behind the thoroughfare buffer or behind the RCA, if he believes this reallocation will best serve the intent of the Corridor Plan.
  3. Resource Conservation Areas (RCA)
    Except for any significant existing natural or built features interior to the site, including but not limited to trees, ponds, older and historic residences, barns, outbuildings, and traditional patterns or relationships between primary and secondary structures, all RCA shall:
    • Be located directly behind and contiguous with the property’s thoroughfare buffer;
    • Be left in existing cover (as noted above in the thoroughfare buffer section);
    • Follow the road’s existing contour;
    • Have an interior wooded edge.
  4. Shoulder/Ditch Sections and Curb/Gutter Sections
    • Maintain shoulder/ditch sections north of proposed Peakway.
    • Construct standard curb/gutter sections south of proposed Peakway, as necessary.
  5. Sidewalks
    • Maintain old walks as integral part of street frontage.
    • All new walks constructed to meet ADA accessibility standards.
    • “Age” new walk material, as appropriate, to sequence into older sections.
    • Multi-purpose paths that meander through the thoroughfare buffer and within a public easement shall be substituted for sidewalks with curb and gutter where determined by the Planning Director to be the most appropriate way to maintain the character of the street frontage.
  6. Building Setbacks
    Building setbacks are to be rural and contextual to the existing conditions and character of the section of street.
  7. Building Orientation
    • Orient all new buildings of a primary nature to front on or face the street and have their main entrance on the street.
    • For structures of a secondary or accessory nature, traditional “outbuilding” configurations are required where determined appropriate by the Planning Director.
    • All structures and features on site shall maintain a balanced relationship to each other and read as historically familiar structures in a traditional rural development pattern.
  8. Building Height/Mass/Scale/Construction
    • New construction shall be contextually compatible with the existing character of the section of street and reflect traditional scale, height, proportions, massing, and rhythms.
    • Two story height maximum.
    • Varied sizes and masses required.
    • Exterior building materials must reflect local building traditions. No slab on grade construction allowed.
  9. Other Site Features
    Other possible site features such as driveways, parking areas, lighting, and landscape plantings shall be considered on a property by property basis with the objective of maintaining the street’s rural small town character and scale.

Sensitive Development Areas Map (Adobe PDF)