LOXLEY, Ala. — The Loxley Town Council was prepared to approve a “Planned Unit Development” and annexation of International Paper’s “Roan’s Creek” development, just north of Interstate 10. The property is approximately between Alabama 59 and Steelwood Lake.

However, spirited opposition from residents who will be affected by the development led the council to hold off formal approval of the plan until it can be considered at their next regular meeting, Oct. 13.

The approximately 5,600 acre development will be a “high quality mixed use development,” according to Kyle Theodore, a principal with Wood + Partners, Inc. The land planning company is working with IP to develop the parcel.

Key to the plan is having the development annexed into Loxley.

Plans for the development, Theodore told the council, include using existing timber roads to produce 3,400 acres of single family residences. About 150 acres will be used for multifamily dwellings, with about 1,000 acres set aside for use as a business park, office space and light industrial development. About 21 percent of the development is wetland or creek, according to Theodore. Parcels will also be set aside for municipal use, and for the building of schools and other amenities, and there will be a 40-acre “park site,” she added.

It will take time for the entire plan to be completed.

Our anticipation is 30 to 40 years,” Theodore said, “Obviously, the market will dictate exactly how long it takes for this plan to develop.”

The company plans to ensure that all tracts have sidewalks or walking trails and there will be “250 square feet” of parks, per dwelling in each development, something Theodore says the town’s Planning Commission asked for.

Residents had plenty of questions.

“Where will the water come from to support approximately 40,000 new people who will be living in this area,” asked Joe Norton who lives on Truck Trail 17. Norton also asked how sewerage for the development will be handled.

Mayor Billy Middleton replied, “ We have an agreement with them that we will provide the services.” However, if the town should not be able to provide sewage treatment, the developer could go to an outside company to provide the service. The town, Middleton added, has an “adequate” water supply.

“My concern,” said Norton, “is that when we have entered drought years, the City of Daphne, Whitehouse Forks, several other municipalities around, have restricted water use. My question is this: We are able to supply water for the 1,500 residents of Loxley, when you start looking at 20 times that, that’s a great many for a project. You say “we’ll drill some wells,” but when you start looking right across the highway at another PUD, at the meeting I came to before, there were 10 subdivisions y’all have approved, but they have not started building yet. I don’t think you can expect on just sticking a well in the ground and have water just come up.”

Norton added that he liked the “concept” of a PUD that would prevent a “hodgepodge” of development on the property, but as concerned that with IP selling the parcels to different developers that “we will get the hodgepodge again.”

Joel Morrow, another resident abutting the proposed PUD, was concerned about the inclusion of light industrial zoning in the project.

“I’ve got three ponds with fish in them,” said Morrow, expressing concern that industrial waste could contaminate the ponds.

I am on a well,” continued Norton, “and I am concerned about the well water being contaminated by a chemical spill. Some businesses dump things — I’ve seen it.” He added that he hopes his children would choose to live near him and will build their own homes on his acreage

Thompson replied that each development would have to come back to the town for approval, and that issues of drainage and storm water runoff would be addressed then.

Even if the PUD is approved, Middleton stressed that “Even though all this is yellow (on the map) is single family homes, whoever is developing it has got to come here and show us what they are going to do as far as streets infrastructure and all that.”

Taylor Norton, also of Truck Road 17, distributed several pages of a “Planner’s Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments,” something he says he obtained at the Environmental Law Institute.

The handout seemed to indicate that the 20-foot “buffers” around wetlands currently planned for the development are not adequate.

“The buffers are more than what is required by the Army Corps of Engineers, the entity that has jurisdiction,” said Theodore.

“Let Loxley do something good for the environment,” said Taylor Norton. “You don’t live here, we do. It is relevant to us.”

Taylor Norton added that the property is “at the head of the Wolf Bay and Perdido Bay Watershed,” and raised concerns about how the development would affect the quality of those bodies of water.

Karen Bill, who represented a hunting preserve near the property was also concerned about the buffers.

While the council has had two public hearings on the matter, the vote to annex the “Roan’s Creek” property and to zone the property as a PUD was put off until the October meeting.

“Some of the people here brought up good points,” said council member Derek G. Middleton. “We need more research.”

Council member Katherine Q. Breeden agreed, and faced with their concerns, Middleton scheduled the vote on the matter to the October meeting.

The point may be moot.

“We don’t have he ordinance to require more (buffers),” said Town Attorney Shawn Alves.

Middleton added that the Planning Commission “Does a great job at what they do.”

After the meeting, Breeden recalled that as a girl she swam in the “Honeycutt” creek near Bay Minette.

“A company dumped waste into the creek,” said Breeden “and afterward, you weren’t allowed to swim there. It makes me sick.”

In other matters the town council

— Voted to participate in a Employees Retirement System plan, providing a one-time lump sum payment to employees retired from the town.

— Approved Loxley’s participation in the “Tri Party Intergovernmental Services Agreement” between the town, county and Sheriff's Department that permits the town to make use of the Baldwin County Jail.