North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

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December 17, 2007

Council tables land measure

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Kimberly residents were out in force Tuesday night to protest the rezoning of 131 acres in town.

About a dozen homeowners attended a public hearing that was held Tuesday immediately prior to the town’s regular monthly council meeting.

Bart Carr, with Carr & Associates Engineers, Inc., presented a proposal before the town council to rezone 131 acres on Warrior Kimberly Road for the Doss Ferry Subdivision.

The property is currently zoned A-1, which is for large-scale agricultural use. Developers want to rezone the property to R-P, which would make it a planned unit district (PUD).

A PUD is a residential zone that allows for houses of varying sizes and types. The Doss Ferry subdivision, located across Warrior Kimberly Road from North Jefferson Middle School, contains 50-55 houses that are currently occupied, according to Carr.

If the 131 acres is rezoned, Carr said the plans are to have a total of 717 houses in the subdivision.

Most of the Kimberly citizens who protest the rezoning live across Warrior Kimberly Road from the property that is being considered for rezoning.

They are against the rezoning for several reasons. For one thing, they fear that the developer, Capstone Partners, will build small garden homes that will lower their property values.

Carr said that the developer is planning to build houses of different sizes, including some garden homes, in different sectors of the subdivision.

He added that the garden homes will be larger than the town of Kimberly’s required minimum square footage.

Officials in Kimberly could not say what the minimum is.

Daniel Shavers, who attended the meeting, said he was also concerned about buffer zones for the subdivision. Shavers lives on Warrior Kimberly Road.

“It looks like we’ll be staring at a privacy fence from our front porch,” said Shavers, rather than having a view of an open field and occasional deer.

The town of Kimberly has nothing on the books regarding buffer zones.

“We have no restrictions on that,” said Mayor Sammie Maze at the meeting.

The concerned residents also do not want to lose the open “feel” at their country homes.

“I moved here for the atmosphere,” said Sherry Kite, who also lives on Warrior Kimberly Road. She is worried that the development will disturb wildlife.

During the public hearing, residents also voiced concerns about:

• their property being disturbed in the future if roads are widened to accommodate traffic. Officials said the county and state makes those decisions.

• a private wastewater treatment plant, which Carr said would be built on 38 acres, causing bad odors in the area. Carr said the plant will meet all state specifications.

• increased responsibility for the all-volunteer Kimberly Fire Department. Councilman Bob Ellerbrock, an attorney and a volunteer Kimberly firefighter, addressed criticisms of the fire department.

A vote to rezone the 131 acres was on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, but the council voted to table the vote until the January meeting.

“I don’t feel comfortable doing anything until our attorney looks at the R-P zoning,” said Ellerbrock. He also said he didn’t feel comfortable voting on the issue without knowing the town’s minimum requirements for the size of houses.

The Kimberly town council called a special meeting for Monday to further discuss R-P zoning. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall.

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