Planners worry developments may strain new schools
03/18/04
City planners gave preliminary approval Wednesday to two large subdivisions in fast-growing west Huntsville, including a controversial 362-home development next to the Edgewater development off Zierdt Road.
The city's subdivision subcommittee also signed off on a 204-unit apartment complex near the Village of Providence planned community. Providence promises hundreds of new houses and loft apartments in a "village'' that also includes shops and a neighborhood school.
The measures go before the Planning Commission next month for final approval.
Wednesday's actions stirred concerns that a high school and K-8 school under construction in west Huntsville could face overcrowding upon opening in fall 2005. Marie Bostick, assistant city planner, said another large residential development for west Huntsville will be submitted soon for planning approval.
Ed Starnes, chairman of the subdivision planning subcommittee, attributed the growth to the schools and Huntsville's aggressive annexation of undeveloped land separating Huntsville and Madison.
Since the city approved special tax districts in 2000 to pay for those schools, planners have approved more than 2,000 single-family homes and apartment units in the area, he said.
"Today, we just approved the layout for 532 single-family homes and 204 apartments in west Huntsville, and that's just one meeting. We seem to be approving things out there all the time,'' he said.
Starnes, former president of the Huntsville school board, urged board members to push developers to donate land for new schools so education officials can stay ahead of growth. School board member Jennie Robinson, an ex-officio member of the subdivision subcommittee, said it generally takes five to seven years to open a school from conception.
Other major residential developments approved in west Huntsville in the last couple of years include Potter's Mill off Slaughter Road, 181 lots; Village of Providence off U.S. 72 along Indian Creek, 149 single-family lots (several hundred more homes are part of the Providence master plan); Walden Run Apartments off Providence Main Street, 356 units; Highland Pointe Apartments off Jeff Road, 292 units; and Oak Alley near the Rockhouse Landing subdivision in Limestone County, 628 single-family houses.
Wednesday, the planning subcommittee gave the nod to The Reserves, a 362-house subdivision off Zierdt Road beside Edgewater; Shadow Springs, a 170-house subdivision off Zierdt south of Martin Road; and Main Street Apartments, a 204-unit complex southwest of the Providence development off U.S. 72.
The proposed Reserves development stirred protests from Edgewater residents, who don't want Edgewater Drive to become a through-street into the new subdivision. Developers Louis Breland and Jeff Enfinger plan to connect The Reserves to Edgewater by extending a cul-de-sac that has ended Edgewater Drive since that subdivision was built in the late 1980s.
Edgewater residents packed City Council and Planning Commission hearings late last year to fight the cut-through, arguing the increased traffic would lead to more crime and endanger pedestrians. City officials and Edgewater leaders disagreed over whether the city failed to follow its own guidelines on temporary and permanent road endings in subdivisions abutting undeveloped property.
Edgewater spokesman Joe Roberts repeated those objections at Wednesday's subcommittee meeting.
Roberts dismissed city concerns that a single-access road would endanger residents if emergency vehicles couldn't get through. City planning regulations require at least two entrances into major subdivisions in case one gets blocked. Roberts said he surveyed emergency workers in the November 1989 Airport Road tornado and found no complaints that roads blocked by debris prevented them from reaching victims.
"There was no contribution to a death because of that,'' he said.
Starnes said planners would be irresponsible to wait for a death before adhering to the rules.
"You can't have large communities with one way in and one way out,'' he said.
Replied Roberts: "I'd respectfully request that you trade that risk against the additional risk our citizens face by having through traffic.''
Construction of roads and other public services in The Reserve should start by May, with home construction beginning in the fall, said Sandra Steele, president of Enfinger Development. The first homes should be ready by spring 2005, she said. Homes will range in size from 1,750 to 2,800 square feet and in price from $160,000 to $400,000, she said.