Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville Planning commission met for their monthly meeting last Thursday afternoon where a sketch plan for the Cottages at Prattville was presented to the commission from The Cottages developers and architects with Forge Residential Partners, a multifamily and development firm out of Birmingham.
The developer, John Baumhauer and his business partner Mike Baker, as well as architect Eric Wadsworth and Blake Rice of Barrett-Simpson, Inc. the petitioner for the project were all present during the meeting.
This is the first initial phase for the new plan for The Cottages at Prattville on Highway 82 and Constitution Avenue, where developers heard feedback from the planning commission regarding their initial sketches. This comes after months long of back and forth with the Birmingham based developers and members of The Homeplace in Prattville late last year to early into this year.
Previously the Prattville City Council voted 4-0 last February against the months-long debate between developers and members of Homeplace to rezone a property at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and U.S. 82 Bypass, where the proposed Cottages at Prattville would have been built with the first initial plans.
Since the land was kept in its original zoning as PUD, a planned unit development, and a small parcel also kept the original zoning as B-2, which is commercial. The next step for The Cottages would be to hold a public hearing after taking into consideration the feedback from the planning commission.
The “new” project will house 192 total units as opposed to the previous project’s 234 single and multi-family homes built on the 44.89 acres. Forge stated the changes made are taking into consideration the feedback from the previous project from the members of Hopeplace, the city council and planning commission while also being fully compliant with the PUD zoning ordinances to the city of Prattville.
The new sketches indicate that over 60% of the building on this plan will be one story in order to keep the “single family neighborhood feel,” Baumhauer stated. The units will range from one bedroom to three bedrooms, with a few two-story townhouse style units, with a projected rent of around $1,400-$2,200.
A major difference from the previous project is that the new project is projected to have a public road running through the development. Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie was phoned into the meeting via city planner Scott Stephens. Gillespie voiced his concerns regarding the public road, and was verbally against the proposed plans.
“It was a plan designed and engineered back in 2004 originally to be a public road. Our intent is just to complete that vision but I think more importantly we do have a B2 commercial parcel right there that is while it’s not a part of this project it is intended to be a future neighborhood retail piece and so we want to maintain two rights two public points of access to that retail parcel,” Baumhauer said.
While the public street will be a continuing topic of discussion, where many members of the planning commission were for a public road through the development. Vegetation, greenery, sewer lines and the overall aesthetic were also questioned by the planning commission to the developers.
“I think the design is really very close. I think that it leaves an intent of the PUD ordinance and I think they’ve done a good job of trying to make it single family-ish, and the rent is such that it’s not going to attract a clientele that is going to be undesirable,” planning commission member Ken Daniels said.
The board unanimously voted in favor of the sketch plan presented to the commission for The Cottages at Prattville. The next step will be to hold a public hearing regarding the new sketched plans.
