Industrial park will be model for others
Environmental protections to be integrated at site
Friday, August 19, 2005
An environmentally friendly industrial park.
Sound unlikely? City officials say that's what the next phase of North Huntsville Industrial Park will be in the years to come.
An effort by city government, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Center for Economic Development and Resource Stewardship would turn the 250 acres north of Toyota Motor Corp.'s engine plant into the state's first industrial park that incorporates environmental protection into its design and the largest such park in the Southeast.
The park will serve as a demonstration project and model for industrial parks in the region, city officials said Thursday.
"It's not just a cookie-cutter development," said Dr. Robert E. Pitt, professor of urban water systems, department of civil and environmental engineering for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Pitt was a consultant to the project, along with KITA Landscape Design, Garver Engineers and the Southeast Watershed Forum.
Pitt said development will include features aimed at reducing pollutants that could enter groundwater and protecting sensitive areas. The land has gently rolling pasture and a ground water recharge area containing sinkholes that allow infiltration of rainwater to an underground aquifer.
The park will have about 50 sites suitable for small industries. Recommendations include digging retention ponds, limiting the width of roads and growing gardens on the roofs of buildings to reduce storm runoff. Plans also call for walking trails and an observation deck for park employees and environmental education groups.
About half of the farmland will be preserved, city officials said.
The plan is a set of recommendations; there are no covenants in place to force the park's tenants to adhere to any of the guidelines. Dallas Fanning, city planning director, said those details will need to be worked out with the City Council.
No tenants have been recruited for the park. Fanning said automotive suppliers could be attracted to the site.
TVA has developed similar projects in Mississippi and on the Georgia-North Carolina border.
The project's first phase is under construction and includes the entrance road and seven lots in the southwest corner of the property. Work at the industrial park also includes widening Pulaski Pike and Liberty Hill Road. That work is expected to cost about $1.5 million paid from one of the city's Tax Increment Financing districts. Mayor Loretta Spencer said the TIF "has provided much needed money for improvements to schools in the north, as well as funding for this conservation design industrial park."
The city established North Huntsville Industrial Park in 1999 and originally assumed it would become home to several plants. The following year, word leaked that Toyota was interested in the entire site.
The city recently bought 250 acres directly north of the Toyota plant to develop an industrial park for automotive suppliers and other industry. In all, the city has about 1,300 acres in the industrial park, including the Toyota site and some property donated to the Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama.
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
© 2005 al.com All Rights Reserved.