SALISBURY, Md. -- On Wednesday, developer David Layfield criticized Mayor Taylor's approach to development in the City. He even asked officials to bring the City's practices to the attention of state agencies and Governor Wes Moore's office.
"There's state planning laws being violated right now by this city, on all of these projects," said Layfield. "No one is really looking at it."
Layfield attended the meeting, hosted by Maryland's Coordinated Permitting Review Council, to discuss the details of the Salisbury Market Center project.
Among five others across the state, the project is on track to be expedited through the permitting review process.
During his presentation, Layfield cited multiple development projects across Salisbury that ran into roadblocks during Taylor's tenure as Salisbury's mayor.
Layfield cited a contentious meeting between developers and Taylor, a $40 million lawsuit filed against Taylor and the City in April, and recent developments with the Salisbury Town Center Apartments project.
"Perhaps your council and this dashboard can highlight and bring to the attention of various agencies and the governor's office, the type of things that are happening at the local level on some projects that are really preventing forward progress and economic development," said Layfield.
Bad blood between Layfield and Taylor isn't new, and Layfield said he's worried the mayor will try to intervene and stop the Salisbury Market Center.
"As much excitement as I have... I have as much angst in my stomach about how the local government is going to just shut us down and grind us to a halt with delay and kill tactics," said Layfield.
On Wednesday, Taylor told us he has concerns about the project's parking plans.
"It's just grossly deficient. I mean, it's a project that would normally take 144 spots and they've provided 24 on-site," said Taylor.
Layfield provided the following statement in response to Taylor's parking concerns.
"SBY Market Center is providing far more parking to its residents and patrons than is required under Salisbury mandated rules. Randy Taylor has invented this "parking problem" that he keeps talking about. From Brew River to the County Courthouse to our City streets, you can almost always find a parking space. Randy's "parking problems" argument is simply a red herring that has already been debunked by an actual parking study rather than Randy's bar napkin arithmetic.
Green Street Housing looks forward to our groundbreaking next year on SBY Market Center and the exceptional community amenity it will become for the people of Salisbury."
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Taylor denied any claims that he or any other city officials are purposefully attempting to delay or stop local projects.
"We are in favor of good projects, good projects that have adequate parking. What we've got here, I think, is a deviation from that standard," said Taylor. "We would not roadblock, in any way, projects that made sense on a lot of levels, on any levels, so this is just, where we are in this project is we unfortunately disagree on some of the particulars."
Taylor said the state has not yet contacted him or the City, and even though the state is looking to fast-track the Salisbury Market Center project, he's not worried.
He doesn't believe the state has any legal avenues to override local zoning decisions.