A zoning matter will be on the agenda of Thursday’s Jefferson County Commission meeting that again highlights commission concerns about the density of proposed residential developments.
K&K Properties LLC previously requested to have property on Eastern Valley Road rezoned from A-1 agricultural to RG garden homes. Commissioners, expressing concern about the density of the properties being built in the development, asked that the request be reconsidered and resubmitted to Planning and Zoning.
The applicant reduced the number of homes in the development from 47 to 46 and is now seeking a less dense zoning of R-3 two-family for a single-family residential subdivision, which is slightly less dense than what was originally requested. Commissioners approved the matter going to the agenda of Thursday’s meeting, but conversation suggested that a ruling on the matter may not come Thursday.
Commission President Jimmie Stephens asked whether the public hearing on the matter could be heard Thursday but action not taken until revisions to zoning standards have been made. County Attorney Theo Lawson said that is within the purview of the commission. The county currently is working on a rewrite of the county’s zoning rules.
Commissioner Joe Knight, also the immediate past president of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said Jefferson is not the only county facing these questions. He cited instances of developers trying to put five or six homes on a single acre.
County Manager Cal Markert added that residents in such areas park their vehicles on the street because they don’t have room to park on their property.
“Baldwin County’s having a big issue with it (and) I think some in Limestone,” Knight said, “where they’re (developers are) trying to come in and change the landscape where it was a subdivision and then packing in these very tightly knit homes next to each other, which is basically apartments with a breezeway.
“We’ll see what happens with our P&Z (Planning and Zoning Commission) and then make a decision and go further with that.”
Thursday’s Eastern Valley Road zoning request in McCalla is in Stephens’ district, but the situation is not unique to his immediate constituents.
“Commissioner Knight has several in his area and I have several in my area,” he said. “This (K&K Properties) has been a pretty good developer. He’s tried to work with us. But you can’t change the density. It’s not congruent with the (preexisting) neighborhood and what we think the overall plan should be.”
Knight said he would be “adamantly opposed to building neighborhoods to rent.
“We need housing. There’s no fault about that,” he said later. “It’s just how we’re going to go forward with it.”
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