Master and phase 1 site plans for Country Club development unveiled
Apr. 24—Developers unveiled the master plan, with a 10-year plan from start to finish, for the former Decatur Country Club property at Tuesday's Planning Commission meeting.
The plan for close to 90 acres at 2401 Country Club Road S.E. is a mixed-use development of single-family homes, town homes and apartments with small retail businesses, David Horwath, president of Brentwood, Tennessee-based Land Innovations LLC told the commission.
The commission approved the master plan and the site plan for the first phase, which features 65 homes on the north end of the property, with the entrance/exit at Country Club Road Southeast.
The Decatur County Club closed its golf course in 2017 and sold the property for $3.7 million to Cook Properties, Cook's Pest Control's real estate holding company. The club closed completely in Dec. 31, 2022. Fite Building Co. demolished the clubhouse and pool at the center of the property the following June.
The Planning Commission changed the property's zoning from B-2, general business, to RD, redevelopment, for Cook Properties in March.
The concept for the new development is modeled on Stephens Valley, a planned community located 15 miles northwest of Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville, not far from the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Land Innovations is also a partner in the $2.2 billion, 411-acre development in unincorporated Limestone County in the southeast corner of Interstates 65 and 565. The developers are planning more than 3,500 residential units and 200,000 square feet of commercial space under the same concept.
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Slow developing
Horwath said the Decatur project is expected to take more than 10 years, with 60 to 70 lots being developed at a time as they move through the development. He said they won't build infrastructure like sewer, electricity and roads for each phase until they reach that phase in the plan.
He said Phase 1 is for three years with construction anticipated to begin in spring 2026. They would then start selling lots to selected builders by the end of 2026, with the first occupational permit issued in 2027, he said.
"We don't go fast," Horwath said. 'The quality you're hearing described is not mass production."
He said they're still developing the marketing portion of the project, so they haven't chosen a name for the new development. Listing prices have also not been set.
Horwath said his company considers the County Club development "an amazing opportunity" with the RD zoning, "but there's also a tremendous amount of responsibility."
The city doesn't require a master plan or for the developer to hold a meeting with nearby neighbors, but Horwath said they chose to do both.
While RD zoning allows for more uses than B-2, like offices and small manufacturing, Horwath said the master plan includes "self-imposed regulations" that the city doesn't require.
Horwath said they're hoping to create a standard for other developers in the city using the RD zoning.
He said an independent, third-party architect will oversee the development as it moves forward. The development will also have a homeowners association.
Among the things included, but not required by the city, in the master plan are:
—Keeping mature specimen tree lines on the old golf fairways.
—Honoring "generous" buffers that include 50-foot no-structure setback and a 60-foot buffer zone at the northern and southern edges where it abuts single-family homes.
—Preserving and designating two cemeteries as common open space.
The plan calls for a "mixed-use neighborhood with a variety of architectural styles, colors and exterior materials and details that work in concert to create harmonious streetscapes."
Horwath said they will use selected contractors to build the development while ensuring the quality with a third-party, independent architect. Including different contractors creates a unique neighborhood because all of the homes aren't exactly alike as they are in some spec-home developments, he said.
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Site plan
The Phase 1 site plan shows a mix of 17 "manor homes," 15 courtyard town homes, two duplexes, 18 single-family homes and 18 cottages. A manor home appears to be a big home, but it's subdivided into condos. The buildings range from 2,156 to 8,085 square feet.
Horwath said the development will appear like one of the city's popular historic districts, Old Decatur and Albany, where people through the years converted bigger, old homes into traditional duplex, four-plex or six-plex.
"This provides a variety of places to live and gives people a real sense of community," he said.
He said the master plan includes 11 different street cross-sections that's part of the experimental subdivision designation. There will be one-way and two-way, residential, commercial, paved alleys and "office drive."
Horwath said the subdivision will have narrow roads and unmarked parking spaces. Both decrease vehicle speeds through the subdivision.
Horwath said they hold gatherings like street festivals that attract "tons of children" at the Franklin subdivision's green spaces.
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Traffic impact
The development's impact on traffic, particularly on Country Club Road, continues to be an issue with neighboring residents.
Scott Cothron, senior engineer of Skipper Consulting, in Birmingham, said the road's average daily count is 7,500 cars, with a capacity of up to 17,000 vehicles a day.
Cothron said the road would only reach just over 11,000 vehicles a day with the full completion of the development.
The master plan shows three exits/entrances to Country Club Road. It does not have any routes from the development to Sixth Avenue Southeast.
Apache Lane resident Michelle Baker and Fairway Drive resident Jennifer Williams expressed concern that people will use their roads as cut-through to Sixth Avenue.
"Someone was stupid enough to (plan to) put a Taco Bell right there (at the corner of Fairway Lane and Sixth Avenue)," Williams said. "So, now we're going to get hit from both ways."
Several residents said they don't think Country Club Road is wide enough, and traffic backs up during rush hours at the Country Club Road-Alabama 67 intersection.
Horwath said one thing they included at the suggestion from the city's Technical Review Committee meeting last week is they will reserve enough frontage along Country Club Road to allow the city to widen the road in the future.
Horwath said the city agreed to watch County Club Road and widen it if necessary. He said there is a plan to widen the road to three lanes in front of the development's entrances so residents can turn left into the subdivision.
Blake McAnally, president of Pugh Wright McAnally Inc., the firm that's doing the civil engineering on the project, pointed out that the city is working on improving the Alabama 67 intersection with Country Club Road as part of adding a service road for a town home development near Target.
He said they plan to add two left-turn lanes off Country Club onto Alabama 67.
"It just so happens that this project will help this situation," McAnally said.
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2 cemeteries
Resident Michael Stovall wanted to know how they are dealing with the cemeteries on the property. He said he is part of the Wickerson family, which owns one of the cemeteries.
"All of that has been a golf course and, when you put the building on there, it's going to cause more flooding," Stovall said. "Sometimes when we go to funerals and bury our loved ones, there's water across the street."
Planning Commission Director Kent Lawrence said usually new development will improve a flooding situation because of the way civil engineering calculations manage water runoff flows.
McAnally said the development isn't in a flood plain, but there are areas along Country Club Road that are lower than the flood plain, so they do flood.
He said the property will meet city regulations that do not allow any increase in the runoff rate, which he pointed out is like any other subdivision.
Resident Terrance Adkins asked the developers to "pay homage" to the residents who are buried in the cemeteries, especially the one on Country Club Lane. He said it would also be great if there could be a pond connected to and near the cemetery for people to enjoy.
Horwath said they've been looking for the people who own and maintain this cemetery, but they've been unable to find a formal deed.
"We are willing to partner with who has the deed," he said.
Stovall said his grandmother has the deed.
Horwath said they hired an archaeology firm that used ground-penetrating radar in an attempt to find the two cemeteries' boundaries.
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432
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