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Council adopts amendments to US 280 Focus Area Study Plan

<p>Auburn's City Council meets in the City Council Chamber at 141 N. Ross St. on May 4, 2021.</p>

Auburn's City Council meets in the City Council Chamber at 141 N. Ross St. on May 4, 2021.

The Auburn City Council adopted the findings of a study about the land around U.S. Highway 280 into its comprehensive plan Tuesday night. 

The City Council unanimously adopted the U.S. Highway 280 Focus Area Study into the City's CompPlan 2030, a comprehensive plan guiding the City of Auburn through 2030.

The study, created in February 2018 and completed in the spring of 2021, updates the City's plans for future land use around the U.S. 280 corridor.

Before approving the study, the Council passed two amendments to adjust future land use of two parcels. Both parcels currently lie outside city limits but are likely to be annexed in the future. The future land uses would determine the land use of the parcels if they are annexed.

The first amendment changes the future land use of a section of Heath Road near Highway 280 from limited residential to rural, the parcel's current land use. The second amendment was to change a parcel on Shelton Mill Road from master plan mixed-use to low-density residential.

Ward 3 Council member Beth Witten and Ward 2 Council member Kelley Griswold introduced text amendments and map amendments to the resolution. Planning staff previously recommended that the plan use limited residential zoning and the mixed-use plan for each of the parcels.

The amendment to keep Heath Road rural also maintains the current three-acre plot minimums rather than moving to one-acre plot minimums if Heath Road were limited residential. One-acre lots would allow for approximately 40 homes to be built which would increase the traffic in that area, Griswold said.

Griswold said the feedback he received from residents who lived in the area strongly advocated for not letting the plan transition into limited residential zoning. Multiple citizens who live near the proposed area spoke in support of the amendment for rural zoning.

“We are rural, and I’m asking you to keep this the three-acre lot size rural and not make an exception for one little piece of property just because there’s a mess on [Alabama State Route] 147,” said Anne Priester Bennett, a resident near the corridor.

Phillip Chase, another resident, said he was concerned about the traffic that the one-acre lots will bring.  

“The traffic that is there already on [Alabama] 147, I just see that getting so much worse,” Chase said. 

Before the official minutes of the meeting, the council discussed nominating one individual to fill a vacancy on the Lee County Youth Development Center Board. 

The LCYDC is a not-for-profit organization with a board of directors representing a broad spectrum of diverse community interests and specialties. Witten nominated Dolly Marshall and the Council affirmed this nomination.

Alison Frazier, Engineering Services director and City engineer, presented a plan for the City's Environmental Services and Public Work complexes. Frazier explained that the facilities are in need of more space and improvements, showing photos of current conditions at the facilities in a presentation. 

The fleet services building was built in the 1950s and is in declining condition. Frazier said the facility needs to be expanded to comfortably accommodate the approximately 700 machines and the employees that maintain those machines.

The new facility will be built off of Wire Road on 65 acres of land. Bids for the complex range from $15 million to $20 million.

The presentation included a virtual tour of the new complexes to give Council members an idea of what the inside of the facilities will look like.

The Council meeting ended with Citizens' Open Forum where the debate on masks and how to handle the pandemic continued to be brought to the Council’s attention.

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