By Ana Good
As the Vestavia Hills City Council nears decision time on whether to rezone and annex the former Altadena Country Club property, work continues behind the scenes to put the final touches on plan details.
The vote will be held Sept. 28, months after the city first announced its interest in the property and following a lengthy planning commission meeting in which residents raised several concerns.
Planning for development of the 122-acre property ramped up when the country club closed its doors in May. The city moved forward with a series of traffic studies, floodplain surveys and site designs.
The proposed development would be a public/private partnership between Keith Development, Vestavia Hills and the property owners.
As part of the deal, about 65 acres would be donated to the city. The city would use its land, which is in the floodplain of the Cahaba River, to build a public park, athletic fields and exercise trails. Keith Development Company would develop the remaining acres into a gated community of single-family homes along with designated parcels for possible commercial development.
As the studies and plans for the area’s redevelopment became more detailed, said City Manager Jeff Downes, residents of the area expressed some resistance.
“If you were to look at the various concerns that are being expressed by our residents,” he said, “traffic issues are concern number one.”
Downes said residents in the Altadena area worry that the development’s proposed access point, on Lakeland Trail, would increase traffic congestion and accidents.
Since the planning commission meeting in August, Downes said, the city has been working around the clock to find a better solution.
“We are actively negotiating a western entrance to the property, which we now know is the preferred option,” he said.
An entrance on the west side of the property would be closer to Interstate 459 and would keep drivers away from the hairpin turn on Acton Road that is prone to accidents.
“We have been working with engineers and various property owners to look at that entranceway,” Downes said. “The hope is that as we approach the Sept. 28 council meeting we will have more definite plans to discuss.”
Downes said solving the entryway issues will help resolve almost all of the public’s concerns.
“We’ve invested time, money and energy into exploring options that will be more suitable for our residents,” he said.
Residents also have expressed concerns about what the commercial properties could become, but Downes said those plans still are in their infancy.
“Rezoning the property would give the developer the option, and I emphasize the ‘option’ part, to develop some of the land for commercial use,” Downes said. “Should the developer want to propose commercial development on the property, they would need to go through a series of reviews that will scrutinize what they can and can’t do there.”
As they are drawn now, plans for the city’s portion of the property call for a couple of soccer, football and baseball fields. Because the proposed park sits in the Cahaba floodplain, structural plans for the site must be limited to flood-resistant bathrooms.
Downes said he did not feel comfortable speaking about timelines for the plan because that would depend on what the city could afford and when.
The Vestavia Hills City is scheduled to vote on the Altadena project at 5 p.m. Sept. 28 at City Hall. ϖ