As the Daphne City Council plods along on enacting a high-rise ordinance – a seemingly endless process now well into the second year of revisions and near-decisions (they creep up on a serious vote, but never pounce) – the Wal-Mart crisis has spurred their counterparts in Fairhope into furious action.
The slick way that the big-box store slipped into town and got approvals to build with hardly a hesitation by Mayor Kant and his acquiescent city staff, seriously worries Fairhopeans. And they’re worried about more than just Wal-Mart. They are worried about the future of their charming—some call it quaint – small town.
The citizens’ group, “A Fair Hope of Success,” took on the challenge of Wal-Mart, but got little more than sympathy from the mayor and expressions of surprise and uncertainty from most of the city council (surprise over what was happening and uncertainty over what to do about it).
An exception to this political lethargy is council member Cecil Christenberry. He organized the first town meeting in recent years in order to consider how to get control over Fairhope’s future. He recognized that this cannot be done in isolation – as the Wal-Mart fiasco has shown – and he got political decision-makers from the state and county at the meeting. There they faced tough questions from passionate citizens who expected action – not business as usual.
And there has been action. The unincorporated areas of Baldwin County around the city are now all going through various steps of enacting land use controls. The establishment of planning zones is on its way to happening. With average luck “anything goes” permitting around Fairhope and in much of the Eastern Shore is on its way out—and none too soon.
With thousands of building lots already approved in subdivisions around Fairhope, many of these adjacent to the State Highway 181 corridor, there has to be some firm, consistent control over commercial development. Otherwise more big-box stores, gas stations, mini-marts and fast food joints will spring up – degrading quality of life in the adjoining neighborhoods.
What should be built as these subdivisions fill, are small islands of businesses that cater to the people living nearby—a doctor’s office, a drycleaner, a family restaurant or a branch bank. Maybe a video store and a deli. This is the very essence of village center concept: the creation of commercial places that are focused on the neighborhood – not on trying to attract someone passing through. These commercial village centers should blend with the adjoining houses in landscaping, architectural style and scale – and not be built to conform to some corporate template created by people a thousand miles away, for whom Fairhope is just a target market.
Those who live in Fairhope know the city is a special community, a place of neighbors and neighborhoods. Fairhope is all about small, not sprawl. As it grows, the city’s leaders must treat that sense of smallness as a key element in considering land use in and around the city. This is a tough job because it will require saying “NO!” and saying it a lot – not a small task for people at city hall who seem constitutionally incapable of turning down a big-time business or developer. A private citizen trying to get a zoning change on a half acre lot to permit a small “granny-flat” is forced to go through more hoops than a trained poodle in the circus. A plan to make 50 acres of what is mostly farm land into a multi-acre super-store and parking lot zips through the approval process so quickly that only after the fact is the city council aware it has been OK’ed.
The mayor’s staff doesn’t appreciate the impact of their actions. They appear to be so insulated from the community that the permitting process is allowed to proceed on autopilot. Controversy, citizens’ concerns, damage to quality of life – none of this is considered. The attitude at city hall is, “Hey I check the dots on the I’s and the crosses on the T’s and if everything’s there, I gotta give ‘em a permit.” We understand. They’re just following orders – oops, I mean procedures and directives.
What makes it even tougher to prevent a future almost no one wants, is that the commercial village center concept is hard to implement in a small, but rapidly growing community – a community like Fairhope. The planned village centers will become commercially viable only as the population of the surrounding neighborhoods grows enough to support the businesses, which will in turn create the centers. It’s slow and it’s hard to protect the land from inappropriate-but-immediate-and-very-profitable use.
There is always going to be great pressure to build commercial junk, RIGHT NOW. Without a lot of effort to prevent it, return on investment will always trump measured growth and careful planning. Places like the State Highway 181 corridor risk becoming a Fairhope version of Daphne’s “Hamburger Hill.” To keep this from happening, there must be aggressive and innovative leaders who are dedicated to the village center concept and making it, and not “Hamburger Hill” and big-box stores, Fairhope’s future.
Fortunately Cecil Christenberry on the city council and Karin Wilson and Dean Mosher of “A Fair Hope of Success” are providing that leadership. It’s not an easy task, but they enjoy enormous public support. Their efforts will ensure that Fairhope will have a fair hope of attaining the future that everyone hopes for. Everyone pretty much – except for maybe a couple of developers and some folks in Arkansas.
Contact Pete Gleszer at jubilee@lagniappemobile.com.
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