The road to Altadena

A park can be a beautiful thing for a city, but homeowners near the former Altadena Valley Golf and Country Club have been concerned about the extra traffic a park on the site could bring. As the city moves toward its decision date on annexing the property, city officials are working on a solution so the development won’t make Acton Road a parking lot.

On Sept. 28, the City Council will voted to annex and rezone the Altadena property, which was in Jefferson County. The action paves the way for a new 70-acre city park, new 22-acre subdivision with 66 houses and about 10 acres of commercial land along Acton Road, said Chris Eckroate, an engineer with Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood who is working on behalf of the city.

Keith Development, which owns the property, will gift around 60 acres to the city for the park.

The residential portion of the development includes 66 homes on the north side of the property on a private, gated street. David Keith of Keith Development said the plans for the neighborhood are relatively settled and if the council moves forward with the annexation and rezoning, he wants to start land development and construction in the first quarter of 2016. Once this process begins, he estimated the first house will be built between nine and 12 months later.

Keith has also proposed two commercial lots facing Acton Road. There are no plans to build anything on the lots at this time, but it could be home to retail or other development in the future.

The city’s proposal for the park includes around 19 acres of passive use, such as walking trails, picnic and green spaces, a playground, dog park, disc golf, a canoe launch into the Cahaba River and a possible fishing pond. The rest of the acreage will be dedicated to active use — currently, the proposal shows six athletic fields divided between baseball, football and soccer.

The fields are located in the property’s flood plain. City Manager Jeff Downes said the city knew about the possibility of flooding when they began planning, but due diligence revealed the site floods at least once a year, much more frequently than expected. Due to this, the city can’t build concession stands, press boxes or other structures besides basic bathrooms designed to withstand water and be easily cleaned. The athletic fields will be used for practice, not competitions.

Traffic has been a top priority for residents near the closed golf course, as the initial master plan places the sole access point onto Lakeland Trail, a residential street off of Acton Road. Traffic engineer John Anthony said that after a study of Acton Road and Veterans Park in Alabaster, which is similar in size and amenities to Altadena, he believes retiming the lights on Acton Road and installing a traffic signal and turn lanes at the Lakeland Trail intersection would do a lot to counteract the additional traffic.

“With these adjustments, we can make this work,” Anthony said.

Peak traffic times after the development is complete would be weekday afternoons between 4:30 and 8:30 p.m. and Saturday morning to mid-afternoon, he said.

At a planning and zoning commission meeting on Aug. 13, the City Council chambers were filled to capacity and many people got up to question the wisdom of adding a large park and possible retail stores to the area. Their concerns included current traffic jams on Acton as well as the S-curve in the road near Lakeland, which has low visibility and regular car wrecks.

Residents also questioned the traffic study’s accuracy, as Anthony had not included possible effects of future commercial development. Acton Road homeowners said they already spent about five minutes daily trying to get out of their driveways without adding more vehicles. 

Many spoke in favor of using part of the property to straighten out the S-curve. Planning commission member Bill Visintainer said that in his opinion, a commercial development is not viable without straightening Acton Road.

The Lakeland Trail access point is still on the table, but Downes is hoping that all these problems will not need to be addressed. He is currently working with property owners on the west end of the Altadena property about building an entry road on that end instead. Downes said they have been initially positive toward the idea, which he and Anthony agreed was the “premium solution.” It would take cars off of Lakeland Trail and be closer to I-459, also removing them from the Acton S-curve.

“Our goal would be to pursue this with the highest degree of enthusiasm,” Downes said.

After the Aug. 13 meeting, Downes said the city is actively working toward a final agreement on the west access point, but it will require engineering and cost studies to determine the feasibility. If the Lakeland Trail access point remains in use, Downes said long-term solutions could include cutting off through access on the road or straightening Acton.

Light, sound and environmental pollution were also concerns for residents. Downes said many of the pine trees on the property will remain there and the park will use the same directional lighting as Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights fields, which will direct the light away from homes. There will be tree buffers between 60 and 100 feet wide between the park and homes.

The Cahaba River Society has requested that the developers avoid placing fill dirt anywhere within the property’s flood plain and use best practices for runoff management to avoid polluting the river. David Stovall of Engineering Design Group, which represented Keith Development at the planning meeting, said there will be about three acres in the flood plain that will have fill dirt, but otherwise they will try to adhere closely to the River Society’s standards.

The practice fields will have underground systems to hold runoff water and let it slowly seep into the ground.

The planning and zoning commission voted in favor of annexing and rezoning the Altadena property, with the condition that developers strive for the River Society’s standards. The developers will also have to come back before the commission to get approval for placing a gas station, fast food restaurant, service station or home improvement center on the commercial lots.

The decision now rests with the City Council. If they approve the annexation and rezoning, Downes said the city’s goal is to have the passive area of the park open in 2017, with other phases of construction following as the budget allows. Since no construction planning has been done yet, he added there are “a lot of ifs, ands or buts” at this time.