Huntsville/Madison Development News (Gordo, Gordon: mechanic, specialists, featured)

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by David1502

To answer your question of "Why does the City of Huntsville want to keep expanding in land mass by expanding?" The answer is very easy - Huntsville needs to increase its commercial tax base to make up for the fact that there are 40,000 plus people who work in office buildings on Redstone Arsenal that provide the City of Huntsville with not one penny in tax revenue - the only exception being the new Redstone Gateway office, hotel and restaurant development located just outside of Gate 9 - Huntsville essentially begged Redstone to semi annex that land in order to receive property and sales tax revenue from Redstone Gateway.

Huntsville is unique in that almost all other municipalities receive a good portion of their tax base from the places where their citizens work. However, Huntsville stands out because a large portion of its residents work on a facility (Redstone Arsenal) which is exempt from paying property tax. Property taxes from single family homes don't cover the costs of providing public schools, police and fire service, therefore cities have to make up for it with sales taxes, and commercial property tax. Huntsville has a huge incentive to annex any lands - whether they be in Limestone County like the Mazda/Toyota and Amazon facilities or to the east near Gurley - if they will provide commercial tax revenue.

As far as the residents behind Madison County High School, they took a huge gamble building their homes in the unincorporated Madison County which has no zoning. The only exception is when a developer puts in a subdivision, they put in restrictive covenants on the lots within the development, so there won't be mobile homes, etc. on any lot. Specifically for those homeowners who built the very attractive homes on Mountain Lane which are worth over $500K and are visible form US 72, they took a big gamble that a large mobile home park or junk car lot would not be built across the street from them, because that is a real possibility and there is nothing legally they can do to stop it. This is the reason that most folks will build in a subdivision which has restrictive covenants on the land - They may pay a lot more for their land than the folks on Mountain Lane did years ago, but in the long run they are better off. The farms may not always be there in a growing area.

Another example is the houses which are located right across the street from the Mazda Toyota plant and also have the Amazon warehouse behind them - they never dreamed all of that would be built in rural Limestone County, yet it has occurred and it may be difficult trying to sell their houses.

Local school systems receive federal funds in lieu of what they would have gotten through property taxes. I believe it was called Federal Impact Funding. I remember having to have my parents sign a form verifying that my father worked for the government, and that I was attending the local school system. So presumable Huntsville, Madison, Madison County, Athens and Limestone County, Decatur and Morgan County, as well as other school systems receive the funding (Redstone employees come from several counties in north Alabama and southern middle Tennessee - I even heard when I worked for NASA of one guy who commuted daily to and from Rome, GA.). The school system would be in dire straits if not for that funding.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Not according to google map. Huntsville's city limits stops at the Tennessee River.

Neither does it show here
https://maps.huntsvilleal.gov/citylimits/

Yeah it does. Look closely and you can see a small pink portion south of the river, just below the 231 shield.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Not according to google map. Huntsville's city limits stops at the Tennessee River.

Neither does it show here
https://maps.huntsvilleal.gov/citylimits/

I hate to show my total ignorance, but how does one navigate the type map in the bolded link? I know the + and - buttons expand and contract, but how do you re-center? Plus, on my Mac when I try to navigate with the touchpad it either explodes in size or shrinks to nothing. I know there must be a way, but I've not found it yet.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by lpc123

It it more accurate to say it is based on territorial jurisdiction. See Alabama Code Title 11. Counties and Municipal Corporations § 11-52-30:
https://codes.findlaw.com/al/title-1...-11-52-30.html

Last I heard, Huntsville was going to annex Cullman ....

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

I hate to show my total ignorance, but how does one navigate the type map in the bolded link? I know the + and - buttons expand and contract, but how do you re-center? Plus, on my Mac when I try to navigate with the touchpad it either explodes in size or shrinks to nothing. I know there must be a way, but I've not found it yet.

I use an optical mouse on my PC. It's much easier.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

"Major development" in the works for eastern Madison County (bu not without opposition from the local residents): https://www.waaytv.com/news/major-de...7539db55c.html

A little more information on this property: According to the Madison County Tax Assessor's website, the owner of the subject property is Grassy Pound L. P. with a billing address of 1002 S. Memorial Pkwy and they own a total of 377 acres on both sides of US 72 East - the lion's share is north of the highway. The western boundary is just a little west of Salty Bottom Rd. and the northern boundary is Hayes Dr. and Salty Bottom Rd. (the road makes a 90 degree turn). The eastern boundary is just east of Hurricane Creek up to the Vulcan Quarry property.

South of 72, the eastern boundary is Hurricane Creek and the southern boundary is the Flint River, the other side of which is the Common area for McMullen Cove which is in the City of Huntsville. Therefore, it will be very easy for all of this property to be annexed into Huntsville, since the property has essentially one owner with different corporate names, but the same billing address on the Parkway, they can request to have all 377 acres annexed at one time. The surrounding property owners needn't worry about being forcibly annexed because Alabama annexation laws don't allow for that.

This property has some advantages in that US 72 is not congested and there is an abundance of executive housing (McMullen Cove and Hampton Cove) nearby, as well as more affordable options in Maysville and the Winchester Rd. corridor.

Now, the City of Huntsville will push more to extend I-565 as far east as they can (at least through the Shields Rd. interchange) to accommodate this possible development.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by David1502

A little more information on this property: According to the Madison County Tax Assessor's website, the owner of the subject property is Grassy Pound L. P. with a billing address of 1002 S. Memorial Pkwy and they own a total of 377 acres on both sides of US 72 East - the lion's share is north of the highway. The western boundary is just a little west of Salty Bottom Rd. and the northern boundary is Hayes Dr. and Salty Bottom Rd. (the road makes a 90 degree turn). The eastern boundary is just east of Hurricane Creek up to the Vulcan Quarry property.

South of 72, the eastern boundary is Hurricane Creek and the southern boundary is the Flint River, the other side of which is the Common area for McMullen Cove which is in the City of Huntsville. Therefore, it will be very easy for all of this property to be annexed into Huntsville, since the property has essentially one owner with different corporate names, but the same billing address on the Parkway, they can request to have all 377 acres annexed at one time. The surrounding property owners needn't worry about being forcibly annexed because Alabama annexation laws don't allow for that.

This property has some advantages in that US 72 is not congested and there is an abundance of executive housing (McMullen Cove and Hampton Cove) nearby, as well as more affordable options in Maysville and the Winchester Rd. corridor.

Now, the City of Huntsville will push more to extend I-565 as far east as they can (at least through the Shields Rd. interchange) to accommodate this possible development.

That's good information. the 377 acres is over a half square mile (0.59), so not that huge an area. The rumored development would be fairly concentrated.

Oddly enough, we were coming back from Atlanta Sunday and I commented to my wife that there hasn't been much development on the east side of Huntsville. I suppose that will change if the deal goes through, but the property is quite a bit farther out than the current built up area along 72 East.

[JackF]

Grassy Pond is John Hays & family

[dwhisent]

Saw an article taken from Huntsville Business Journal (sorry, I don't have a link) that Gordon Food Service Store is opening on Feb 1 at 4710 University Drive. It says it is the first store in AL and has bulk food items (like Sams and Costco), and free membership. Maybe one of you guys with a subscription can post a link to the article.

[Rick In Madison]

Is it replacing the Aldi or going into the Shakalaka location? I don't drive by that location much so I'm less familiar with the business in that shopping center.