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Council votes 4-1 to approve rezoning for Helen Ridge subdivision, appoints member to BOE

by

Emily Featherston

Emily Featherston

Emily Featherston

At its final meeting for the month of April, the Vestavia Hills City Council heard a rezoning request for 3700 Cahaba Heights Road for the purpose of a subdivision development by the name of Helen Ridge.

The request was to rezone the property from Commercial B-3, major retail, to Residential R-9, planned residential development.

The discussion went on for more than an hour, as council members, the developers and citizens went back and forth over various issues.

Designed as a 48-lot residential development, Helen Ridge is being developed and constructed by Harris Doyle Homes, the developers of Altadena Ridge and Steelemont.

The proposal came out of the Planning and Zoning Commission with a negative recommendation after lengthy debate, but Mayor Pro-Tem Rusty Weaver, liaison to Planning and Zoning, said he wanted to explain that there was a 5-1 vote in favor of the proposal, but because it did not meet the six vote threshold, it came with a negative recommendation.

David Stovall with Engineering Design Group, who was hired by Harris Doyle to engineer the development, explained that after the Planning and Zoning meeting, the development team met with some of the concerned parties, including Cahaba Riverkeeper, residents in the area concerned with traffic and other stakeholders.

“We’ve tried to answer the questions they brought to us at that meeting,” Stovall said.

Stovall described the efforts and designs within the development to contain the first 1.2 inches of rainfall, which he says meets the standards of the MS4 permit the city is moving toward, as well as the Birmingham Water Works Board requirements for stormwater runoff.

Wynn Echols spoke for the development to further describe the wastewater treatment facility that would be onsite. The "cluster" system would include septic tanks at each home, which would pump to the central treatment tank. One the water was fully treated and cleaned, it would be returned to the earth via underground lines.

Echols said, after prompting from Weaver and Councilor Paul Head, that the system is designed with failsafes to ensure that even in a "worst case scenario" there is minimal threat to a breach. 

Brooks Harris, of Harris Doyle, said he also wanted to add to his proposal a commitment to donate just over 1 acre of land to the Fresh Water Land Trust, and just over 5 acres to the city, which has land contiguous to the edges of the property.

Environmental biologist Janna Owens, who also appeared at the Planning and Zoning meeting, expressed her concern to the council during the public hearing. Owens said that she had met with the developers and asked even more detailed questions about how stormwater runoff would be handled than had been presented at the council. She said that the problem wasn't the development itself, but its proximity to the Cahaba River and the impact she said it would have on sediment erosion and build up, among other factors.

“I would say that this project has been done with due diligence, but we have to be considerate of [the] water system going forward,” she said.

In addition to the environmental concerns, Place 4 Councilor George Pierce said he had reservations about the development's impact on the school system.

Harris said that by his calculations, and comparison with other developments he has done in Vestavia, a house like the ones they plan to build, which would be worth around $500,000, would generate about 0.8 students per household. Total, he said their development would add 30 students to the school system.

Pierce said he wasn't sure that was accurate, with single-family homes of that size being more attractive to families with kids than those retiring or not having kids.

Place 2 Councilor Kimberly Cook said that the figure was in line with what the school system had heard from a demographic report, and said that to her understanding, the development was included in the enrollment projections the Board of Education has been using when discussing facilities options.

The final vote for the rezoning was 4-1, with Pierce voting against.

Other Council Business Included:

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