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| 1987 citizen survey report |
NO AIRPORT BOULEVARD WANTED
During its August 5th meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider a zoning amendment intended to prevent Greeno Road from becoming another Airport Boulevard (W. Mobile's infamously-congested street) or Hamburger Hill (US 98, Daphne): an effort that began in the late 1980s with the Corridor 98 Committee's 'Road To Chaos' report, continued with the city's Village Comprehensive Growth Plan in 2001 ... and most-recently last October's Visual Preference Survey of citizens for the highway.
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| Oct. 2018 Visual Preference Survey |
6.5 MILE LONG CORRIDOR
The Greeno Road Corridor (GRC) zoning overlay envisions five districts along a 6.5 mile stretch (800 feet wide) that transitions from less-intense commercial uses on the outskirts of town ... to more intense at the central Fairhope Avenue intersection (single family residential property in the corridor is not affected).
"The GRC is intended to provide a transition of use intensity from less intensity to greater intensity back to less intensity along Greeno Road. Additional landscaping, parking in the rear, retrofitting/updating old existing shopping centers, restricting drive thru lanes, restricting electric signs are some of the components of the plan."
(Existing businesses/buildings will be allowed to continue in the same manner, per Article VII of the Zoning Ordinance.)
FIVE SEGMENTS PROPOSED
1. NORTHERN EDGE DISTRICT
Provisions include (check the proposed ordinance for specifics):
Drive thru's and car washes prohibited.
Convenience stores and auto service stations allowed (if pumps in rear).
Small hotels/motels allowed.
2. NORTH VILLAGE DISTRICT
Foresees retrofit of existing shopping centers.
Drive thru's, car washes, and quick serve (no tables) restaurants prohibited.
Convenience stores and service stations prohibited.
Limited grocery and general merchandise stores.
3. GATEWAY DISTRICT
Drive thru's, car washes, quick serve restaurants prohibited.
Convenience stores and service stations prohibited.Limited grocery and general merchandise allowed.
Town homes limited to two stories.
(Approved PUD's as examples.)
4. FAIRHOPE AVENUE VILLAGE CENTER
(Edwards Avenue to Morphy Avenue)
Retrofit of existing shopping centers.Drive thru's and quick serve restaurants prohibited.
Service station, convenience stores and auto repair prohibited.
Limited grocery and general merchandise.
5. SOUTHERN EDGE DISTRICT
(Morphy Avenue to Old Battles Road)Drive thru's, convenience stores, service stations, car washes, and auto repair allowable (with some restrictions).
NOT APPLICABLE TO RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY
The amendment applies to all construction, demolition, renovations, improvements of any kind occurring within the GRC overlay; but does not apply to properties zoned R-A, R-1, R-2, or R-3 (single family residential). Current zoning (under the overlay district) remains in effect.
Non‐conforming uses, structures, lots, and other non‐conformities existing within the GRC at the time of establishment shall be governed by Article VII of the Zoning Ordinance, non‐conformities."
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| 2001 comprehensive plan survey |
Comments
The large shopping centers are specifically mentioned as candidates for "retrofitting" (ie. the big parking lots in front).
Is Fairhope not satisfied with the high rankings and tourism that we have to spend so much time on retrofitting things that are perfectly sufficient now? I understand the desire to keep traffic from becoming Airport Blvd. All this fancying up is just the opposite of what the founders wanted and that was for the common man and woman to enjoy the beauty of nature here and now it's becoming only for the rich.
I believe we've passed the point of no return as far as authenticity of what Fairhope was. It's like the tony little made-up Seaside, Florida and other upscale places like that.
Thank you, Publisher, for keeping us up to date.
The Planning Commission and City Council will both have to approve it, after appropriate public hearings.
I am not an one of those owners so it doesn't affect me enough to attend the meetings. It just increases my stress level! ha!
Georgism and Marxism were first cousins. Zombie-like, both continue to stalk deathlessly about progressive population pockets, threatening our way of life.
I hear Vermont is lovely this time of year, as is Novosibirsk, Comrades.
something like this needs to be done there too.
Just because someone is appreciative of some of the things the Founders may have done like setting up the single tax so that all could enjoy the natural beauty doesn't indicate that he or she is signing on to join the communist or socialist party. Now THAT is a very shallow pronouncement to infer all of that from a few comments.
"Georgism, which is a variety of Marxism whereby the State should own all the resources derived from land which is an old Physicocrat idea that wealth is derived from land. In this way, all natural resources should belong to government from mining to energy just for starters as if government operated industries ever ran efficient. He also supported a single tax for all an believes that, while people should own the value they produce themselves with everything derived from lkand should belone to government characterized as belonging equally to all members of society.
This philosophy was also born of this period of Karl Marx with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Henry George (1839 – 1897) was an American political economist, journalist, and philosopher. He wrote during this period and inspired several reform movements of the Progressive Era. His philosophy became known as Georgism, with the central core as Marx that the value of any product is its labor content to produce it – not capital. Based on the belief, George reasoned that people should own the value they produce themselves – not industry. He maintained that the economic value derived from land, which included natural resources, should belong equally to all members of society and thereby the state".
Publisher, might I suggest you require people to register with screen names?
...Publisher, might I suggest you require people to register with screen names?"
LOL!
Nor did you read anything that came before it--obviously. The whole thread is about who owns the means of production; so, it doesn't get more relevant than Marx, especially in a community founded on Georgism.
One doesn't need a MENSA card to card to read, to know her history, and think before she speaks.
Yep, including the one who has her computer programmed to autofill the above-quoted phrase into this comment box.
I can read, and I can think before I speak--both without PhD. Higher education does not mitigate the moral ignorance that allows Marxist sympathy; indeed, it often makes it worse.
Likewise, the class warriors here who label anyone who disagrees "a snob," fondly approach Marxism from another direction: redistributionist envy.
If you work hard and work hard to keep Fairhope's little corner of America free, you'll find happiness in life, more time to help neighbors, and less time to imagine that you know best how others' should enjoy their property.
Einstein’s greatest marvel was not how much he knew but how much he didn’t know.
Let's not conflate ignorance and stupidity. The latter cannot be corrected, and it is folly to debate it. Also, stupidity is non-volitional; so, deriding it is very uncharitable, cruel even.
We should, however, be intolerant of ignorance on parade in public policy discussions, especially when it's fueled by emotional factors such as anger, envy, class warfare, or only a desire to stir the pot.
What I don't know is a lot...far more than Einstein. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm just trying to learn new things at least as fast as I am forgetting old things. It's a battle, I tell you.