FAIRHOPE – Expressing concerns over increased residential development in the city’s downtown commercial area, Fairhope City Council members rejected plans for a mixed-use residential-commercial project on Magnolia Avenue.
The council voted 3-0 Monday, July 12, to deny approval of a site plan for a 20-unit property east of Church Street. The project would have included four commercial spaces and 16 residential units in a three-story building, Hunter Simmons, city planning director, said.
He said the smallest commercial space was 400 square feet. Simmons said the Fairhope Planning Commission voted at an earlier meeting to recommend that the council deny the site plan request.
Simmons said developers can construct mixed-use buildings in the Commercial Business District. He said projects, however, should have a balanced mix of commercial, such as retail, restaurants and office spaces, with residential on the upper floors. He said some proposals have more residential and less commercial space, as well as parking, than planners intended for the CBD.
“People are for whatever reason, are trying to squeeze too much in and it’s hard to squeeze commercial space and parking on the ground floor when you’re trying to residential on the top,” Simmons said. “Our focus is making sure there’s viable commercial space in our central business district.”
Three council members, President Jack Burrell, Corey Martin and Kevin Boone were present at the July 12 meeting.
Boone said the proposal did not suit the Central Business District where the property is located.
“The CBD is getting more and more away from the commercial area and more into the residential area and if we don’t watch what we’re doing, it’s going to get even worse,” Boone said. “Well, I think we have found the project that made it even worse. This, to me, and quite frankly, is a joke. This is a residential complex that is circumventing the rules to put in a few commercial properties to make it legal.”
Martin also said the plan is not the best use of the site.
“I think we can be a little bit smarter or safer about how we use that space,” Martin said. “It’s not commercial at all. It’s residential and I think we can do better.”
Residents also objected to the proposal. Doug Kennedy said the project is a residential development in a commercial area.
“We’re in the Central Business District,” Kennedy said. “The property across the street is Central Business District. The project is mainly a high-density residential proposal. It’s not Central Business District commercial.”
“The problem is the parking. There’s not nearly enough parking for the people living there, so where are they going to park? They’re going to park in the street. They’re going to try to park in our parking lot,” he added.
Mike Dobson said he told the Planning Commission that the project was wrong for the location.
“We’re not opposed to development. We’re opposed to this particular development,” he said.
At the July 12 meeting, the council did vote 2-1 to approve a site plan for a separate mixed-use development next to the site where permission was denied. That development included seven residential units and three commercial spaces.
City officials said the two developments were different projects by different developers.
Simmons said the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the council approve the 10-unit development. He said that plan has more parking, 20 spaces for 10 units. He said he was not aware of any objections from area property owners.
Vance McGown, project representative, said most of the entrances on the ground floor on Magnolia Avenue would be commercial. He said the mixed-use was suited to the property which is on the edge of the CBD and next to residential areas.
“We’re on the west border of the Central Business District,” McGown said. “Everything on the other side of the street is residential. So, frankly I don’t think that maybe a Shrimp Basket would be appropriate on that side of Magnolia Street, on Church Street, even though it’s Central Business District.”
Boone voted against the second proposal. He said he was also concerned that while that plan had three of the 10 units planned as commercial, business space only took up 13 percent of the building.
“Like it or lump it, you are in the CBD. It doesn’t matter what the residential street is, you’re in the CBD and this keeps up the precedent on putting residential areas in the CBD and I’ll be quite honest, I’m not for that. I’m not for that at all,” Boone said.
Burrell said the plan would bring commercial development to the CBD.
“There was a single-family residence on this before,” Burrell said. “If you talk about the CBD, you’re adding three commercial spaces to a lot that had zero, so you could look at it as you’re enhancing the commercial district going from zero to three.”
