Reinventing suburbia

Lifetime Fitness could soon welcome a greenway and up to three mixed-use retail centers as neighbors. 

Other possibilities for the Patchwork Farms site include a grocery store, café, local pub, wide sidewalks and various roads within the development that connect with Acton Road and Cahaba River Road.

Patchwork Farms is located between Cahaba River and Caldwell Mill Roads off U.S. 280. In December, Vestavia Hills held a three-day planning charrette, a type of collaborative session to design a solution, for the 87-acre site purchased by the City in 2007 for $11 million.

During the charrette, design and consulting firms Dover, Kohl & Partners, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Skipper Consultants and Gary Justiss provided attendees with illustrative views of the site’s potential. 

 “It’s about creating a center for Vestavia Hills and bringing the community together,” Jason King of Dover, Kohl & Partners said. “The problem with most developments is they tend to be all one kind. We want this to be a mixed-use development.”

All in all, the intention of the charrette was collaboration of ideas.

“What’s important is we are not just getting one person’s idea for the development, but it’s a community of people getting together to share their ideas,” City Manager Jeff Downes said of the process he previously used as chief of staff in Montgomery.

Initially, according to Vestavia Hills Mayor Alberto “Butch” Zaragoza, the City’s decision to buy the Patchwork Farms property was intended as an investment.

“Our original intention was to turn around and sell that land to developers, but the economy went south, and new retail and residential construction stopped,” he said. “So, we chose to hold onto that property waiting for the economy to recover.”

For four years the property sat largely idle. 

In 2008, Vestavia Hills considered using approximately 12 acres of Patchwork Farms for a park and walking path and 18 acres to construct playing fields according to an article by former Mayor Charles “Scotty” McCallum published in the Vestavia Hills Community News. The remaining 57 acres were designated for retail and residential development.

As the economy began to regain its strength, the City sold 22 acres to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education. That was followed by 16 acres to Lifetime Fitness for $2.5 million and seven acres to Northport Holdings for $1.4 million.

MedVest LLC, a company representing Brookwood Medical Center, agreed to purchase an additional seven acres for $1.4 million, but Zaragoza said the City ended the contract when MedVest failed to work out its deal.

Entering 2013, the City was in control of less than half its original site at Patchwork Farms — 42 acres of the original 87. But last year the Board of Education brought its 22 acres to the table and development became a joint venture. 

“Then, we decided to take a different approach, one that was proactive,” Zaragoza said. “We decided to market the property, and that was the purpose of the charette. We want to show developers all the things that could be done at Patchwork Farms.”

This tactic points back to Downes and his experience with developing areas of Montgomery. In fact, he referenced the idea last year.

“It has to be proactively marketed,” Downes said of Patchwork Farms in 2013. “You don’t put a for-sale sign out and say, ‘All comers, come on.’ Right now, we are re-evaluating all the unsold properties all around this area to see if we can come up with a common community vision of what will be successful and appropriate there.”

Downes said the City would continue to keep the community updated on the site’s progress. 

For more information about Patchwork Farms, contact City Planner Conrad Garrison at cgarrison@vhal.org.