Vestavia Hills annexes, rezones Altadena Valley Country Club property

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The Vestavia Hills City Council tonight approved the annexation and rezoning of the 100-plus-acre Altadena Valley Country Club property off Acton Road.

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.

The rezoning also includes a strip of agricultural land along the Cahaba River and an additional single lot for one house.

Plans for the city park include four fields to be used for soccer, lacrosse and football, two fields for youth softball or baseball and about 25 acres of land to be used as a passive park, including walking trails, open green spaces, a playground and a canoe launch into the Cahaba River, Eckroate said.

The 66-house subdivision would include lots that are mostly 60 feet wide by 120 feet deep and houses with 3,500 to 4,500 square feet and priced between $500,000 to $800,000, said David Stovall, an engineer representing Keith Development Co.

No one spoke against the development plans outright tonight, but several residents expressed strong concern about the amount of additional traffic that will be generated by the development. The park parking lot would be built to hold 400 to 500 cars, Eckroate said.

Traffic already is horrendous on Acton Road, and people can’t imagine what it will be like once this city park and new subdivision are added, said one woman who owns property on Acton Road.

The current master plan for the city park shows traffic emptying only onto Lakeland Trail, a residential street off Acton Road.

Eckroate said the development plans should increase traffic in the area by 8 percent each of the first two years and 4 percent each in the third and fourth year. However, the additional traffic should be manageable if left turns are not allowed off of Lakeland Trail onto Acton during peak morning and afternoon traffic periods on weekdays, he said.

Additionally, Keith Development has a tentative agreement to purchase additional property along Acton Road next to the BeKare Child Development Center that could potentially allow for an entrance to the park from the western end of the property.

The city tonight agreed to pay Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood $6,000 to do planning for an entrance on that side of the park. There potentially could be a traffic light installed there, but no engineering study has yet been done to determine if a traffic light would be a good solution there, Eckroate said.

Vestavia Hills Mayor Butch Zaragoza said city officials would much prefer to have the park entrance on the western side, away from the residential area.

City leaders also are considering working with Jefferson County to study ways to realign and improve Acton Road between Interstate 459 and Camp Horner Road, Zaragoza said.

The goal is to straighten out some of the sharp curves there and study whether widening the road will help alleviate traffic congestion, he said.

Because the new city park will be in a floodway, the fields will be designed primarily for practices, Eckroate said. There likely will be some competitive games there, but no tournaments because the floodway status will not allow for the construction of buildings to support tournaments, such as a concession stand, he said.

There will be bathrooms on the park property, however, Eckroate said.

Current plans call for the park to be developed in phases, with a couple of football fields and the passive park being in the first phase, two soccer fields, a play structure and canoe launch in the second phase, and two baseball/softball fields in the third phase, Eckroate said. The order of that development is subject to change, he said.

The city also hopes to leave as many trees as possible on the edges of the park property that border other homes and may be able to add more landscaping in some places to strengthen buffers, Eckroate said.

Several residents in adjacent unincorporated land said they’re concerned about having a good law enforcement presence in the area once the park is added and more people are coming there. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is understaffed and can’t properly serve their neighborhood, they said.

Vestavia Hills police Chief Dan Rary said his department routinely backs up Jefferson County in that area and will have patrol cars going through the park regularly once it is built.

Wes Cline, a resident on Altadena Lake Drive, said he was concerned about people parking on his street and walking to the park. Zaragoza said city officials could talk to Jefferson County about the possibility of putting no parking signs on nearby unincorporated streets.

Betty Shivers, another resident on Altadena Lake Drive, said residents love the idea of the park, but the city needs to do something about maintenance of the property and people loitering on it in the meantime.

Zaragoza said the city would take care of any unsightly landscaping issues and look into doing something to keep people off the property until it is developed.

The Vestavia Hills City Council also tonight voted to annex and rezone land at the corner of Rocky Ridge Road and Wisteria Drive to make way for a 45-house subdivision to be called Sound Bend.

The typical lots would be 70 feet wide by 150 feet deep, and houses would be at least 2,800 square feet and priced from the mid-$500,000s to upper $600,000s, said Blake Pittman, an engineer representing Taylor Burton Homes.

The council also tonight: