City council votes no on rezoning for new Gardendale subdivision

GARDENDALE, Ala. ( WIAT ) — It was nearly a full house at Gardendale City Council meeting Monday night.

Almost every resident in attendance took to the podium expressing their concern with a project that would build eight garden homes and would require the city to rezone 1916 Moncrief Rd. from R-1 single family homes to R-G Gardendale home residential.

“If you want to sell the houses that’s one thing, but putting rental property in and you don’t know who is going to rent it, who is going to maintain that septic system, the tension pond. There’s too many ifs,” said Gardendale resident, Wendy Mabrey.

Mabrey lives in the neighborhood, she says aside from those concerns she believes the development of the homes would cause more traffic and speeding among drivers who travel the road.

A safety hazard for pedestrians and kids who often play in the neighborhood. With council voting no on rezoning the property, Mabrey says she’s satisfied with the outcome.

“I am thrilled to death,” said Mabrey.

Gardendale City Councilor Bryan Knox is one of three council members who voted no on the proposal, saying the residents’ concerns is what ultimately led to his decision.

“My constituents made it very clear that they were against this and so after a lot of consideration and a lot of discussion amongst the council, I made the decision as did two others that we are voting no,” said Knox.

Despite this, Knox says the development of new homes is needed in the city. Moving forward, council is open to working with developers and they welcome new projects that they see fit for the city.

“We are in a real growth tract in Gardendale, we want development. It was just in this particular area for this particular development, the citizens in that area felt like the concentration was just too much for that small area,” said Knox.

A spokesperson for the developers attended Monday’s city council meeting. He did share the property owners plans for the development of the homes. Since that vote failed, they are now back to square one.

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