Alabaster sets hearing for new homes off Arrow Drive

Published 10:50 am Thursday, October 26, 2017

By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City Council will hold a public hearing in late November before likely voting on a pre-zoning request to allow for 13 new home lots off Arrow Drive, council members announced during an Oct. 23 meeting.

The council will hold the public hearing during is Nov. 27 meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. at Alabaster City Hall. The pre-zoning request likely will be on the agenda for a vote the same night.

During the meeting, the council will decide if it will accept a recommendation from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to pre-zone a portion of about 65 acres north of Arrow Drive as R-1 residential, meaning the unincorporated Shelby County property would be zoned as such if it is annexed into the city in the future.

R-1 residential zoning calls for 20,000-square-foot minimum lots, but developer Jason Spinks said he is planning to construct estate-sized homes on the property with 150-foot-wide, 1-acre lots.

Spinks’ most recent plan for the property calls for a total of 39 new homes on the land split into two separate areas. The first area would be accessible only via Arrow Drive, would include 13 home lots and would end with a cul-de-sac. The second area would include 26 lots, and would be accessible only via Independence Drive.

All homes in the proposed development would be on septic tanks, not the city sewer system.

During the Nov. 27 meeting and public hearing, the City Council will only be dealing with the 13 lots off Arrow Drive.

During a late September meeting, Planning Commission members said they had concerns with pre-zoning the entire 65 acres, as the northern portion of the proposed development would have included a stubbed-off road leading to a currently undeveloped property in Helena’s city limits.

After the commission members voiced concerns regarding the northern portion of the proposed development, Spinks and commission members agreed to only tie the pre-zoning decision to the 13 lots off Arrow Drive.

If Spinks decides in the future to move forward with building the 26 lots in the northern part of the development, he must come back to the commission and City Council to get approval.