David Hill, an Auburn-based consultant, has lived in master planned communities around the United States. He wants to bring his knowledge of other cities to Auburn.
That’s why he is running for mayor.
After moving back to the place he calls home in 2009, Hill noticed how different Auburn was compared to the other communities he lived in over the years. Hill said his over 30 years away from Auburn are a plus to his campaign.
“I just feel there is something that I could bring to the table,” Hill said. “I think one of the greatest strengths I would bring to this is I’ve lived other places.”
Other College Towns
During Hill’s hiatus from Auburn, he lived in College Station, Texas, the home of Texas A&M University. There Hill served on the planning and zoning commission.
Hill wants to address parking. He said he believes there is not enough of it downtown, and that is because of planning.
While serving on the planning and zoning commission in College Station, Hill saw many developments come through. Each development was required to add parking when they added a development because of a requirement from the planning and zoning commission, Hill said.
“You could build a 100-seat restaurant and we do have in the requirement that you have to have nice landscaping but there’s no minimal space [requirement,]” Hill said. “They (College Station) made people build to scale. You force people when they are developing their development to take that into account.”
He attributes the fact that he could, even on gamedays, find parking anywhere in College Station to the fact that developers had to add parking when they added a building. Hill said he wants to bring that idea to Auburn.
What many people don’t understand is there is a masterplan for every community. He wants to work with the citizens to explain the plans and the zoning and then help them to change it if they want to, Hill said.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” Hill said. “Maybe the plan needs to be revisited. When you go through a re-planning process, like they’re having in Northwest Auburn, where they are talking about the plan, that’s a unique opportunity to make a lot of people focus at one point in time.”
He said that making people more aware of the zoning throughout Auburn will lessen the possibility for a crisis, such as where residents don’t realize their home backs up to a commercial zone lot until a developer wants to build a gas station there.
During his time in College Station, a similar situation arose for Hill and his counterparts on the planning and zoning commission.
Hill said all of the commotion could have been avoid had the community looked at the community plan and zoning laws long before anyone had even thought of putting a gas station near residential houses because the zoning allowed it.
“It’s better to do something now than wait until they start pouring concrete,” Hill said.
The First Year
Part of Hill’s plan to educate the public on the zoning laws and re-examine Auburn’s plans all leads back to trust. The community needs to trust the City and City officials, Hill said.
He wants to establish a sense of mutual respect among city employees, council members and citizens.
“The power of the mayor is the power to persuade,” Hill said. “And you can’t persuade people that don’t trust you.”
Hill also wants to refocus the city’s attention to other areas of town to get more retail, and therefore more retail sales tax, but not create another downtown area.
Retailers want to be near retailers. So when new retailers are looking to come to the area Tigertown is appealing to them. Hill said he wants to make areas in Auburn equivalent to Tigertown to attract more retailers and customers.
“I’ve feel like this is Auburn, Alabama and we’ve lost to Alabama 10 years in a row,” Hill said. “I don’t like that, I like Auburn to win. So that’s a really core thing.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
