SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council recently approved a rezoning request for a wedding venue to be operated at the former Sacred Heart Church property.
The city council approved a plan June 21 to rezone the 1.5-acre property at 128 N. Fulton St. for a wedding venue called The Abbey.
The vote was the second approval by the city council, which OK'd the rezoning June 7 only after city planners and the property owner modified the plans in response to neighbors' concerns.
Lori and Michael Dienfenbach requested the rezoning so they could convert the property into a wedding venue. Along with furnishing the former church and other buildings on the property to serve as a wedding venue, they plan for a support services building that could include related businesses such as a florist or tuxedo rental store. Another of the buildings could be converted into a bed and breakfast in the future, they said.
The Salisbury-Rowan Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated that the 1,800 square feet of retail space could have an impact of $1.8 million on the local economy, Lori Dienfenbach said. The venue would also bring many out-of-town visitors into Salisbury.
But some neighbors and the Historic Salisbury Foundation had voiced worries about the noise, parking congestion, and businesses that might move into the support services building if the wedding venue were to fail.
The Dienfenbachs' proposal went through two council committee meetings and a Planning Board committee meeting, during which changes were made to the plans, including removal of a rooftop terrace.
The Refuge, a church that currently rents a building on the property, will also have to move before the plans for the wedding venue can move forward.
The Fulton Street property was the home of Sacred Heart Church from when it was built in 1940 until 2009, when Sacred Heart Church moved to its current 40-acre campus on Lumen Christi Lane, just off Jake Alexander Boule-vard.
— Amanda Raymond, Salisbury Post