Fairhope, Alabama
 |
| Overland PUD |
 |
| CR 48 (Fairhope Ave.) |
'OVERLAND PUD' ON EAST CR 48
Development on the east side of town continues at a dizzying pace with the Overland project, a 77 unit housing project on 30.7 acres at the southeast corner of CR 48 and Blueberry Lane/River Mill Drive (east of Walmart).
61 lots on the east side will be single family home lots, with 16 town homes in four, two story buildings on the River Mill Drive corner.
68V Overland Llc, is the developer; the property is to be concurrently annexed into city limits; all utilities are to be city of Fairhope except electric, Baldwin EMC.
 |
| town home design. |
'RIVERHORSE SUBDIVISION' TOO
Also, nearby on the far north end of Blueberry Lane, construction has begun on the 25 lot Riverhorse subdivision on 22 acres already zoned R-2, within the city limits. Much of this property is reserved for green space, common space, or wetlands though.
A connection to dead-ended Calbre Street in the adjacent North Station caught residents there by surprise recently, although no one objected during the planning commission's public meeting two years ago where the project received approval.
Online property records show Dilworth Development Inc. of Auburn as the current owner; '68V Riverhorse 2019' was the previous owner. (The Bills No 2 Llc. was the original owner in 2019.)
All utilities will be city of Fairhope except electric, Riviera Utilities.
Questions about the required access from unimproved Blueberry Lane have still not been resolved, as far as we know.
 |
| Riverhorse subdivision plan. |
 |
| New Calibre Street entrance. |
CITIZENS BEGIN FIGHTING BACK
In response to what they view as dwindling quality of life in their neighborhoods, some east side residents have formed to support adopting zoning in unzoned areas outside city limits where much of the activity is occurring.
A petition for new county planning District 8, generally in the Twin Beech Road area, has already been submitted -- and one for a District 37 generally east of town all the way to Fish River is currently being circulated for signatures (click). The Judge of Probate will schedule a voter referendum in those new districts when that happens.
The associated Save Lawrence Road campaign formed last month to oppose still another town home development still in early planning stages for nearby Lawrence road.
Another town home project is being proposed for Dyer Road at Bishop Road, in the proposed district 37 as well; a 242 unit apartment complex was approved for E. Twin Beech Road last year (click).
Ten years ago, a similar effort to enact zoning in this area failed (click). (See the sign at very bottom.)
 |
| Current "Save Lawrence Road" movement. |
 |
| Last zoning effort failed (2010). |
Comments
Thank you for your brilliant answer. I always laugh at the folks who want to be the last ones allowed to live in Fairhope. Most commentators are simplistic NIMBYs.
If you've never lived in a highly urbanized/suburbanized area, day after day, year after year, you cannot fully appreciate how such diminished quality of life and such coarseness of culture takes chunks out of your heart and soul, leads to despair.
Despairing over the madness we see on the nightly news is a far cry from living amid that madness. As children, my own parents caught snakes and cooked potatoes over bonfires in sprawling prairies only a few miles west of Chicago's city limits. Today, those prairies are polluted, concrete jungles of discontent, where the neighborliness the we enjoy is as dead and gone as the prairies themselves.
The NIMBY crowd can be unfair, unrealistic, and socialistic; the pure libertarians can be naive and sanctimonious--all to our collective detriment. A balanced, constitutional public policy approach, navigating the middle passage should be the goal of our elected leaders. Perfect is unattainable, as is universal satisfaction, but let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Leaders: lead, please.
How, exactly, did you determine that this is the time to give up on our future? Why not 10 years ago?
Better yet, how about we never give up? Despair is an ugly sin, with ugly consequences.
It seems the excessive sewage discharge into Mobile Bay would be an important tool to freeze development. It has been used with positive results in other areas. I thought I heard it was used here at one time as well.
Maybe there's an environmental attorney out there that could shed some light.
NO COMMENT here !