Illustration by Melanie Viering
Vestavia Hills turns 75 this year. What began in 1950 as a mountaintop subdivision of 607 residents has grown into one of metro Birmingham’s most coveted ZIP codes — a city defined by strong schools, rising property values and suburban polish.
But it was two annexations — one bold, one tactical — that shaped the last
quarter-century of that rise. Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights didn’t just change the map.
They broke it — and redrew the future of Vestavia Hills in the process.
By the late 1980s, Birmingham and Hoover were locked in a land race along the booming U.S. 280 corridor. Birmingham leveraged control of water and sewer lines to secure annexation deals. Hoover leapfrogged east from Inverness, connecting a patchwork of subdivisions and undeveloped land.
While Birmingham and Hoover carved up U.S. 280, Vestavia Hills did something different: it crossed the corridor — and in doing so, reshaped its own future.
Landlocked and boxed in, the city watched from the sidelines — until Liberty Park came along.
The 2,500-acre master-planned community was being developed by a joint venture led by Drummond Co. It needed a city. Mountain Brook passed. Vestavia Hills didn’t.
The catch? Liberty Park was several miles away from Vestavia Hills — and legally out of reach.
“They were not contiguous,” City Attorney Pat Boone said. “But the Legislature passed a special act that allowed us to annex them. Birmingham challenged the constitutionality of it. We tried the case. The Supreme Court upheld it.”
Photo by Jon Anderson
Longtime city attorney Pat Boone points to the annexation of Liberty Park as a catalyst for Vestavia Hills' growth.
The Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling set a statewide precedent: cities could annex non-contiguous property if authorized by the Legislature.
“When that case happened, man, things took off,” Boone said.
Liberty Park officially joined Vestavia Hills in 1992 — expanding the city’s footprint almost overnight.
The result was a city unlike any other in the region — stretching 19 miles from end to end, yet rarely more than a mile wide. “We’re a very linear city,” City Manager Jeff Downes said. “But that annexation gave us an avenue for growth. If those moves hadn’t happened, we’d be struggling today to provide the quality of life and city services people expect.”
The developers pledged $15 million for public infrastructure and donated 35 acres for city use — 25 for schools and 10 for municipal services. Liberty Park Elementary opened in 1999. A middle school followed in the 2000s.
The development has since grown to more than 3,500 acres, including The Bray, a 50-acre town center rising at the heart of its final development phase. The mixed-use hub includes residential space, retail, offices, green space and a future hotel site. It’s already drawing investment and new residents.
“We’re getting police coverage out there. We’re enlarging the fire station. We’re going to have a branch library out there,” Mayor Ashley Curry said. “There are so many great things coming to Liberty Park. They’re going to be very pleased with what they see.”
CLOSING THE GAP
A decade after the Liberty Park annexation cleared its final legal hurdle, Vestavia Hills made its next move — not to expand, but to connect.
Cahaba Heights was the missing piece. Just across U.S. 280 from Liberty Park, the neighborhood was wedged between Birmingham, Mountain Brook and Vestavia’s original city center. It had its own fire district, its own school and a fiercely independent identity.
But for a city boxed in by ridges and jurisdictions, it was the only way to stitch the city map together.
Mountain Brook made the first move — but a selective one. It attempted to annex only Cahaba Heights’ commercial corridor, bypassing the residential areas. A Jefferson County probate judge rejected the plan, ruling the city couldn’t claim the tax base while leaving the people behind.
“Mountain Brook wanted all the businesses,” Mayor Ashley Curry said. “They didn’t want the houses.”
Vestavia Hills took a different approach — and a different tone.
“So, in comes Vestavia, and we are welcoming,” Curry said.
Newspapers.com
May 15, 2002: Front-page coverage of the Cahaba Heights annexation vote from the now-defunct Birmingham Post-Herald. Retrieved via Newspapers.com.
In a referendum, more than 1,600 Cahaba Heights residents cast ballots. The result: a 2-to-1 vote in favor of annexation. The decision added more than 5,000 people to Vestavia’s population — making it, at the time, the third-largest city in metro Birmingham, behind only Birmingham and Hoover.
Downes said the move not only closed the physical gap between city districts — it created new avenues for growth.
“During Mayor Scotty McCallum’s term, the ability to connect the land masses of Liberty Park and the legacy Vestavia Hills area with this unincorporated section known as Cahaba Heights then allowed for a continuous city geography,” Downes said. “Cahaba Heights had a village-style concept the city needed to embrace.”
Katherine McRee, a longtime Cahaba Heights resident and business owner, remembered the tension — and the choice.
“So here y’all are going to take all the sales tax revenue. Y’all aren’t going to do anything for the people that live here,” she recalled of Mountain Brook’s proposal.
McRee was among the local leaders who rallied behind Vestavia Hills’ promise to integrate both the people and the businesses. In 2004, she opened her children’s clothing store, The Lili Pad — in the same space that had once served as headquarters for the pro-annexation campaign.
City of Vestavia Hills
The completed annexations of Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights helped Vestavia Hills grow from a landocked position along U.S. 31, crossing U.S. 280. The growth in population and tax base has helped the city maintain its schools, add new city services and enhance quality of life for its residents, leaders say.
TIES THAT BIND
In the decades since annexation, city leaders have worked to ensure that Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights aren’t just connected on paper — but by purpose.
“We actually have six different business districts,” said Michelle Hawkins, president of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce. “Cahaba Heights has a merchant association. Katherine McRee is the president there — she’s on our board, and we work very closely with her.”
Liberty Park, meanwhile, is coming into its own. The chamber sees The Bray — a rising town center with retail, housing and parks — as a chance to cement deeper ties.
“We’ve got new relationships with the people moving into the apartments,” Hawkins said. “They’re involved in events, on our committees. We’re looking for someone who can become a leader out there — someone to knit that district into the whole city.”
James Parsons, president of Liberty Park Joint Venture, said the city’s ongoing investment has made a tangible difference.
“The ball fields, the police coverage, the expanded fire station — all of that makes it feel like a true part of Vestavia,” Parsons said.
City Manager Jeff Downes said the integration has taken many forms — physical, fiscal and cultural. He credits recreation and education with bridging the gaps.
“Most people have families and children that have made their way through the school system,” Downes said. “So just following and matriculating through the school system places you in all parts of the city.”
Even sports programs, he said, helped unify the map.
“My son practiced football at Wald Park. We played games at Liberty Park and the SHAC fields. We were all across the city,” Downes said. “And that exposure allows you to take part in the uniqueness of every district.”
But for some, belonging took longer.
“In the beginning, it was very, very rocky,” said McRee, who moved to Cahaba Heights
in 1996. “I’d be at the ballpark with my children, and people would talk about Cahaba Heights like we didn’t have very much money.”
Some shoppers at her store would specify they lived “in Vestavia proper.”
Photo courtesty of Katherine McRee
A tornado ravaged Cahaba Heights on April 27, 2011, resulting in significant damage across the community and injuries to 20 people.
Then came April 27, 2011.
“When the tornado hit, I think that was the most pivotal moment,” McRee said. “That’s when the people who lived here, the businesses, and the city really started recognizing each other. That’s when we all grew up.”
The recovery that followed forged trust, accelerated reinvestment — and laid the foundation for a city stitched together by more than just boundary lines.
FROM FRINGE TO FUTURE
Today, Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights are not just annexed — they’re essential.
Together, they power much of Vestavia Hills’ tax base, school enrollment and population growth — and their influence is still growing.
“It was a great thing,” Mayor Curry said. “Brand new schools in Liberty Park. Revitalization in Cahaba Heights. Athletic facilities. And people move here for those schools.”
City Manager Jeff Downes put the impact in numbers.
“Between all revenue sources, [Cahaba Heights and Liberty Park] represent somewhere between 20 and 25% of the city’s budget,” Downes said. “And yet their population doesn’t reflect that share. So they bring great current and future financial resources that allow us to provide city services and quality of life initiatives.”
He noted that 15 to 20% of the city’s sales tax revenue comes from Cahaba Heights, while Liberty Park contributes more in property taxes — thanks to high-value assets like the Urban Center. “Over the next 10 to 15 years, we anticipate over $850 million of investment in the Liberty Park area,” Downes said.
He also made it clear what would have been lost without the two moves.
If we were the little hamlet along Highway 31 and that’s all we were, we would be reducing services and opportunities — not upgrading facilities like we are these days.
Not long ago, Vestavia Hills was a landlocked city with no path forward.
Liberty Park changed that. Cahaba Heights sealed it.
Now, as the city marks its 75th anniversary, the map tells more than a geographic story. It tells one of vision — of risks taken, trust built and two communities becoming part of something bigger.
Downes, who has lived in Liberty Park and worked along U.S. 31, said the full city is now interwoven — functionally and culturally.
“It’s all part of one,” he said. “The natural beauty, the eclectic nature of the people who live in all these different areas — that’s what makes Vestavia Hills special.”
And the next 25 years will show how fully Vestavia Hills becomes part of them.
“Each district, each part of the city, has its own identity,” McRee said. “But now it’s all Vestavia Hills.”
The Impact of Annexation
As Vestavia Hills celebrates 75 years, City Manager Jeff Downes offered a glimpse of where the next 25 could lead — and how the two annexations that redefined the city will continue to shape it.
“You’ll have a larger city — probably pushing 50,000,” Downes said. “And I think you’ll still have a community based on families, safety and good people.”
Vestavia Hills population (2023 U.S. Census): 38,195 residents
Liberty Park population: 6,700
Cahaba Heights population: 5,700
Population added through annexation of Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights: 12,400 (Annexed communities now represent more than 32% of the city’s population)
Daytime population in Liberty Park and Cahaba Heights: Nearly 20,000
Vestavia Hills total land area: 19 square miles (19 miles long, roughly 1 mile wide)
What’s Ahead by 2049:
Population nearing 50,000
Growth in retail, recreation and residential development
Increased walkability and business district integration
Sustained demand for schools, safety and quality of life
A more unified identity across all corners of the city
Throughout 2025, Vestavia Voice is looking at stories that shaped the city's history as part of the 75th anniversary of the Vestavia Hills' founding. Read more:
