DAPHNE — Several Lake Forest residents attended a nearly three-and-a-half-hour City Council meeting Monday to oppose the rezoning of property in close proximity to the Lake Forest country club and golf course and adjacent to Grande Pointe Apartments.

Developers have requested that the land, currently zoned as R-3, high density single family residential, be rezoned to R-4, high density multifamily residential. Grande Pointe Apartments’ second phase would locate on the roughly 9 acres of land.

This was the first read of the ordinance, so no vote followed. The council is expected to take a vote at its meeting Sept. 4.

The 124-unit complex — which would complement the 180-unit complex of phase one — would be accessed through phase one at Bayview Drive and Lake Front Drive, according to Richard Davis of Davis & Fields Attorneys.

A traffic study has shown that after the addition, the intersections would stay at the same level of service, which is currently an “A-B” level, Davis said. Traffic service is given letter grades like in school: the higher the better, according to Davis.

The study also showed that the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Bayview would remain at its current “B” service level, Davis said.

Davis also addressed the presence of police at the current apartments. About 181 police calls were made over 13 months, according to Davis. Half shouldn’t be considered because of their nature, such as serving subpoenas, and routine traffic stops, he said.

Also with phase two construction, owners have said they will fix the existing apartments, Davis said.

Lake Forest is zoned as a single-family residential area, which is not consistent with apartments, Henry Lawson, a Lake Forest Property Owners Association member, said during a public hearing.

“We don’t want the distinction of having the largest apartment complex; it’s not the proper place,” Lawson said.

Pam Oberkirch, an LFPOA member, spoke about police calls and traffic issues.

Together, Bayview and Ridgewood are 6.5 miles long. Within the past year, 225 police calls have come from Lake Forest; an extra 185 calls came from Grande Pointe Apartments, Oberkirch said.

Traffic is an issue, despite the study Davis had mentioned, Oberkirch said.

In a 124-unit complex, if there are 1.5 vehicles per unit, an extra 270 vehicles could be traveling in Lake Forest, Oberkirch said.

If the property remained zoned as R-3, there could be 3.2 homes per acre, with only 60 vehicles overall, according to Oberkirch.

“I do not believe that the road can handle the traffic,” Councilman John Lake said.

Councilwoman Regina Landry said she believed the traffic hasn’t been studied like it should, and rezoning the land may be premature.

There were two other public hearings Monday; one for annexation of Gates VI, property located at County Road 64 and Pollard Road; and one for property located off the corner of Pollard and Whispering Pines Roads.

Neither ordinance was voted on since each was a first read.

A concern with Gates VI, an 80-unit complex, is it will be another phase of apartments that exist there, though that phase hasn’t been annexed into the city.

Davis said that at this time it is not economically feasible for the existing apartments to be annexed into the city.

Council members stated concerns about the division between the phases since one would receive city services, while the other would receive county services.

The second annexation proposal will include 56 units.

Traffic has been a concern and the owners have agreed to contribute one-third of the cost of a streetlight and have added decel lanes to the project, Justin Clements, an engineer with Alabama 200 Investment Group, said.

“The mayor is pleased and would like to see this annexed into the city,” Councilwoman Cathy Barnette said.

The mayor, absent from the meeting, had asked Barnette to convey his thoughts, she said.