By Gary Lloyd
TRUSSVILLE — The Trussville City Council last week voted to re-zone a 39-acre tract near Magnolia Place from garden home residential to institutional for a future community elementary school.
The move did not come without concerns.
A woman who lives on Hidden Way Lane voiced her concerns about increased traffic in the area, saying the road in front of where the school will be is “handling all it can handle now.”
“It’s going to back up traffic everywhere,” she said.
She was concerned about congestion and increased noise with the addition of a school so close to her home. She said it will be hard for her to drive in and out of her driveway with the increased traffic.
Mayor Gene Melton said Skipper Consulting Inc. was hired to determine what improvements needed to be made to the roads in the area.
“We are very sensitive to the aesthetics as well as the traffic,” Melton said, noting that there will be buffers between the school property and houses in the area.
The land where the school will be constructed has routinely been identified as the “Mary Taylor Road 39 acres” but will now be addressed as 5400 Hidden Way Lane for the new elementary school.
The Trussville City Board of Education last May voted in favor of two new elementary schools, to be located in the Magnolia Place area and at the historic New Deal-era school on Parkway Drive in the Cahaba Project. Each school will house roughly 400 students, with a capacity of about 500. Construction, including equipment necessary for students to move in, will cost a total of about $18 million.
Both schools are expected to open for the 2016-2017 school year.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.