Photo by Erin Nelson.
A vehicle passes through the 4-way stop at the intersection of Caldwell Mill Road and Acton Place in Vestavia Hills in front of a 10-acre wooded lot Aug. 27. Highpointe Properties purchased the property with a proposal to build 29 new homes. Nearby residents have expressed concern about the development.
A proposed development in the Altadena community has undergone significant change, lowering the number of proposed homes at the site.
The development, to be located at 2810 Five Oaks Lane, was originally set to see 29 homes built on 10 acres, but the owner, Round Tree Investments, has said they have lowered that number to 17 homes.
The property is currently in Jefferson County, and is zoned E-2, but the owner is seeking to be annexed into the city of Vestavia Hills and to be rezoned Vestavia Hills R-2, which calls for 15,000 square foot lots. The owner is seeking to leave some acreage in the county, but that drew the concern of city staff, said City Clerk Rebecca Leavings at an Oct. 19 Annexation Committee meeting.
Leavings, along with City Planner Conrad Garrison, said leaving the acreage in the county would leave the city helpless should the county decide to develop the land. Leavings said staff recommended the land stay in the county, but be brought into the subdivision, and placed under the same restrictive covenants as the rest of the subdivision.
There is also major concern over the bridge that provides access to the development. The bridge has a 3-ton limit, and George Pierce, the chairman of the Annexation Committee, said the city has reached out to the county to ask them to look into making the bridge more structurally sound and to stop deliveries into the Patchwork Farms retail area through the bridge.
Both the Vestavia Hills Fire Department and the engineering office said upgrades must be made to the bridge and engineering also recommended a traffic study be done. A representative with the property owner said they have contracted with Skipper Consulting to perform a traffic study, but it has not started yet.
The representative said the lots will be in the $175,000 to $200,000 range. The homes will be in the $700,000 to $750,000 range.
Residents in the area have organized and expressed concern over drainage and environmental issues, the consistency of the surrounding neighborhood, the safety of pedestrians, traffic and the existing bridge.
Leavings said the proposed annexation is likely to come before the Council around Thanksgiving or early December.
