The Tuscaloosa City Council voted Tuesday night to table a proposal to rezone nearly 18 acres near Forest Lake and delay plans by 908 Development Group to build a new 646-room apartment complex there called The Standard at Tuscaloosa.
The vote to table the resolution followed a public hearing featuring three hours of debate over the pros and cons of the complex between the council and 18 residents of nearby property.
The property has been rezoned several times recently and seen many failed attempts by developers to find the right residential fit for the area. Most recently, the area was Arlington Mobile Home Park.
Alex English, cofounder of 908 Development Group, said the company was aware of difficulties developers faced in the past working in the same area. He said before they planned any part of their proposed complex, they carefully examined those failures and the complaints raised by surrounding permanent residents regarding those endeavors. He said the plans he presented to the council were built around directly addressing the concerns of the community.
“There’s not one person that we’ve met with and presented this plan to, there’s not one neighbor who’s gotten to know our product, know us as business people, know the type of project that we want to bring to the table; there’s not one of those people that we’ve met that we don’t have their support, that I know of,” English said.
“Our aim is to develop the highest quality student housing development in the city of Tuscaloosa, and we think we’re well on the way to accomplishing that,” English said. “It will be the highest-quality architecture in student housing you’ll find anywhere in the Southeast.”
“We’re a very small, petite-sized developing company based in Tampa,” English said. “We do a small number of projects, and I’d like to say we do them really well. As a two-man development company, we’re very hands on. We’re not the type of developers that hide behind office doors. You’ll finds us with hard hats on, on site, through every stage of development.”
English also said that the plan met or exceeded every requirement that the recently passed Tuscaloosa Forward Plan set for property development, including regulations landscaping, property buffers and fencing. The proposed complex clustered its buildings away from the property lines and bordered itself instead with parking lots and landscaping so that nearby residents could retain their privacy.
John McConnell, Tuscaloosa’s director of planning and development services, said that though the complex met all requirements for the Tuscaloosa Forward Plan outlined for the function of a development, it went against the direction the plan outlined for aesthetics and form.
“This is not exactly the direction we’re heading in Tuscaloosa Forward,” McConnell said. “I’m not saying this couldn’t work for this site – apparently some of the neighbors adjacent to the site seem to think this is a viable solution – but it doesn’t quite work with the direction we’re heading with other new zoning.”
McConnell said that the plan, ideally, orchestrates a smooth integration of larger properties with smaller ones and makes the differences between buildings that are close to one another less drastic.
“In layman’s terms,” McConnell said, “the tallest buildings, the most prominent buildings, would be brought closer to the major roads and tiered back in height and scale and density as it moves toward the consistent single family houses so you don’t have a four-story building next to a single family house.”
“[The apartment complex] is a viable use of the site,” McConnell said. “But I would suggest that it needs to be in the right form in relation to the neighborhood around it.”
Gary Limmroth, who relocated near the site of the proposed complex when his home was destroyed by the tornado, also addressed the Tuscaloosa Forward plan, albeit more aggressively than McConnell.
“The message you’re sending to me if you pass this vote,” Limmroth said, “is that you’ve laid out this plan, but this development is going to bring in a whole lot of money, so the plan doesn’t apply.”
Councilman Lee Garrison said the community members against the proposed complex needed to ask themselves what else could occupy that space that would be better than the apartment complex, which was arguably better than the mobile home park that occupies the space currently.
Some in the community shared Garrison’s line of thought.
“I’m here tonight to support this proposed development,” said Tommy Nix, who lives adjacent to the southern border of the property in question. “Something is going to be built on this property sooner or later, and I’d like to see this one go.”
Nix, a retired engineer, said he had complete faith in the developers and engineers for the city of Tuscaloosa to address the community’s biggest problems with the proposed complex, traffic and drainage.
The city council will address the issue again during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
