Fairhope, Alabama
'THE COTTAGES AT PORITCO'
Construction has begun on the first two of up to twelve new single family homes in the central business district in the Portico planned unit development on Fairhope Avenue east of the post office. Craig Homes Inc. is the builder.
The homes were allowed when the original mixed-use PUD was amended by the city council last November to increase residential and reduce the commercial component due to the current weak market (commercial).
Preserving businesses downtown has always been a top priority of the city's comprehensive growth plan; as a compromise in this case, some types of business activity was specifically permitted in the homes at the owner's discretion (ie. offices).
A personal storage facility that occupied he property for decades was demolished in 2017. Townhomes and additional commercial space is still planned in future phases of the PUD.
From a November 2020 Fairhope Times report:
"The city council approved the request to add more residential space to the already-approved Portico project in the central business district, just east of the post office on Fairhope Avenue. (Councilman Boone was absent and Brown abstained.)The original plan for seven, two story buildings containing 33 residential with 23 commercial units was changed to 12 cottages, 4 town homes, and two 3 story buildings with a mixture of commercial and residential. Overall residential square footage was increased from 49K to 66K square feet and commercial decreased from 28K to 21K. One mixed-use building has already been constructed. The council included a stipulation added by the planning commission allowing business use of the 12 cottages, at future owner's discretion. City planning staff initially opposed the change, but came to approve with the added stipulation allowing businesses in the cottages. Owners sought the change due to changing market conditions."
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| Cottage plan. North is up. |
Comments
How? A blight storage facility downtown is being replaced by attractive buildings that will house business and, just as important, consumers who will walk out their front door and spend money throughout the downtown businesses.
The habit of some, here, to cast empty aspersions at others who risk capital and offer blood, sweat, and tears to improve our community (and make a buck doing so, yes), is quite discouraging. If we allow this mentality to catch fire, we could become one of those towns which nobody cares to do business with. Be sure, many business districts just as prosperous as Fairhope's have fallen from their heights in the last half-century.
If anyone has specific concerns about our civic life, certainly he should state them--but state them explicitly, offering evidence and/or argument for your position. Everything else is just sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Affordable for whom? The market drives the cost. If I can afford Fairhope prices, but I cannot afford Malibu prices, I would be just as wrongheaded to ask: "When will someone build affordable housing on the Pacific Coast Highway?"
Every day, people are chased out of housing markets--whether because of high prices or high crime. Thankfully, each of us has a right to free movement in the United States, but none has the right to live in a zip code that we cannot afford.
Does the world owe us a $30,000 Lamborghini, a $200 Patek Philippe watch, or $50 Cavalli jeans? That might be nice, but the market thinks otherwise.
I, for one, would not care to live in a neighborhood that I could not afford.
Fairhope's a real nightmare, alright. I'm moving to a better place, like Seattle or Detroit.
You're ruining my brand.
Yes! We can be just like NYC and San Fran. The unintended consequences matter not, as long as our virtue is signaled.