By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — Trussville City Council is considering approving a change in the original Trussville Springs Master Plan during an upcoming council meeting.
The City Council approved the original plan around 2007. Initially, the developer went to P&Z with requested changes, and the board “determined that continued changes, in the manner they were requesting, constituted a major change to the PUD and would need to be brought back before the current council.”
Related Story: Planning and Zoning considers changes to Trussville Springs
After a special session on Wednesday, Sept. 21, the board unanimously passed P&Z and will go before the council with a favorable recommendation.
“It comes with a positive recommendation from P&Z contingent upon their T4A1 and T4A2, meaning the architectural standards and R1 zoning of Cherokee, which is what that section will connect to. So that’s the contingency there,” Councilmember Ben Short said during the council workshop.
Short stated previously that this would more than likely lead to a further reduction in the unit count for those categories.
Trussville Springs was the highest-density PUD previously approved, and Short said these changes would reduce that number slightly. However, it still will be one of the highest-density PUDs that Trussville has.
According to Short, this PUD was approved 15-16 years ago, with a total unit count of 586 dwellings; this new plan will lead to a solid reduction in total dwellings, add additional green space, allow for the completion of a permanent entrance to the community, and adjust the mixed-use/commercial component to areas that make more sense.
“The original plan called for a max of 80 planned attached family (townhomes) and a max of 160 multi-family units (three-story condos) for a total possible max of 240 units within these product types based on the original density map,” Short stated.
Short said during the workshop that this would be an overall reduction of a least 45 units. In addition, the new plan removes the multi-family category (condos) entirely and changes the number of attached family (townhomes) to a max of 111 units for this product type.
During the P&Z meeting, Short explained that while this is an increase in 31 possible townhome units, it’s a significant reduction (possibly 160 condos) in overall units when you factor in the removal of the multi-family category, which in his opinion, is a better outcome here.
The original plan called for 19.5 acres of commercial property, and the new plan shows 14.19 for a reduction of 5.31 acres.
The mixed-use category shows a small increase in acreage, going from 10.9 to 11.3. Barry Stalnaker from the Offices for Trussville Springs LLC said they could implement a grocery store or assisted living in that multi-use area.
“With the reduction of 5 commercial acres adding .4 to this category is still a solid trade-off from my perspective,” Short stated. “Overall, this PUD has been ongoing for a long…long time, and with these changes and a PUD update, we can hopefully get these residents their permanent entrance and move toward finishing this community, which is long overdue.”
Short explained that the original plan called for 35.7 acres of green space, and the new plan now has 39.35 acres of green space.
“Along the backside of the river, they are doing their nicer river homes and then kind of tiered that out,” Short said. “So you’ll have the nice river homes along the river, and then you come down to some of the other stuff that you see, and townhomes are on the backside of that, which was also a positive change.”
Also, in the new plans is the potential for a bridge to be built to cross the river, but it is not certain whether the bridge will be pedestrian or vehicle.
Stalnaker said that if the council doesn’t approve the new plan, they would be “forced to go ahead and put a three-story condominium in the phase three area where we’re proposing townhomes.”
“I think the difference here is that the worst-case scenario has already been improved,” Councilmember Jaime Anderson said. “We just want to be able to justify with people and let them know that this was approved 17 years ago, and this is a better proposition that it was before, even though it’s not ideal for those who are concerned about density.”
Councilmember Lisa Bright said the new plan helps alleviate traffic and density, which is the better option.
“If there’s an option that there’s going to be condominiums, three-story condominiums turning in and out of Highway 11 with no red light and no bridge. I think that’s a disaster for being a very unsafe place to live,” Bright said. “I like the new plan.”
The council will vote on the new plan during an upcoming council meeting.