Map courtesy of city of Vestavia Hills
The Vestavia HIlls City Council on Dec. 22 voted to rezone four pieces of property at 4308, 4312, 4316 and 4320 Dolly Ridge Road in Cahaba Heights from a medium-density residential use district to a planned neighborhood mixed use district to accommodate three professional medical office buildings.
The Vestavia Hills City Council this week rezoned four pieces of property on Dolly Ridge Road in Cahaba Heights to make way for professional medical offices.
The properties at 4308, 4312, 4316 and 4320 Dolly Ridge Road previously were zoned for medium-density residential use and now are zoned as a planned neighborhood mixed use district.
The approved zoning carries stipulations that the property can only be used for professional medical office buildings with no drive-throughs and two stories or less and must maintain at least a 20-foot buffer for all adjacent residential property and keep light poles limited to 10 feet in height.
Joshua Watkins, a representative for the property owner, John Weaver, said in a letter to the city that an adjacent property to the north was rezoned for light mixed use in 2015 and developed as a professional medical office building. That site today is home to PT Orthodontics.
The four lots are on a significant traffic corridor, making them less suitable for single-family residential use and well-positioned for low-impact commercial development, Watkins wrote.
“Across the roadway to the east are parcels zoned R-6 (high-density residential), further supporting the appropriateness of transitioning this site to a neighborhood-compatible commercial zoning designation,” Watkins wrote.
The proposed medical office buildings will mirror the design, scale and use of the PT Orthodontics building, he said.
A woman who lives next to this property told the Vestavia Hills City Council she is concerned about stormwater drainage problems that have increased in the area over time as properties have been developed for more intense uses. She’s concerned that rising stormwater will get into her house, she said.
Councilman Rusty Weaver said stormwater is something to be taken into account during design review of proposed plans, not during zoning for the property. The council voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning.
The council also rezoned property at 4521 Pine Tree Circle in the Topfield subdivision from an office park district to a business district with uses limited to a construction framing company and the understanding that there be no outside storage or heavy construction equipment. Fabrication also is prohibited, and the planned storage building to be built must be designed similarly to the existing building on the property.
The council also agreed to pay CMH Architects $873,845 to design a new 25,000-square-foot police operations building at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex and $111,896 to design a 4,800-square-foot maintenance building at the complex as well.
Originallly, Monday’s agenda included a contract to hire Williams Blackstock Architects to do a feasibility study, concept design and space programming study for a new east side library at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex, but the council decided to postpone that decision to have further discussions.
The new facilities planned for the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex are expected to cost about $25 million and be funded with borrowed money. The council voted to hire Rice Advisory to continue providing public financing guidance to the city in conjunction with that effort.
