MORE INFORMATION
The following is a timeline of events related to the property’s rezoning.
The Walker County Planning Commission conducted Feb. 20, 2020, the first public hearing and recommended denying the request. The Hutcheson family, on behalf of the developer, requested the rezone from agricultural and commercial to residential (R2).
The county’s planning and development staff — citing 15 traffic accidents near the property from Jan. 1, 2018, through Jan. 1, 2020 — also recommended denying the request.
Whitfield, on Feb. 27, 2020, said that the second hearing would be postponed at the developer’s request and that another hearing would be scheduled, legally advertised and allow time for public comment.
An informational meeting Oct. 22, 2020, at the Walker County Civic Center addressed traffic concerns about the project. The meeting was not a public hearing and was not conducted as one. The second hearing was not rescheduled.
At the Nov. 12, 2020, meeting Whitfield stated that the required public hearings were held Feb. 20 and Feb. 27, 2020. He said the matter had been tabled at the Feb. 27 meeting.
“We are bringing this back up and taking action on this now, so we will approve this as submitted,” he said Nov. 12, 2020.
The preliminary plat approval for the development was on the Aug. 19, 2021, agenda for the planning commission; the planning commission granted the developer’s written request that consideration of the preliminary plat be extended until Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021.
More than 20 residents participated in a march in downtown LaFayette Aug. 26, 2021, and later that evening addressed Whitfield during the commissioners’ meeting about the county’s failure to follow the legal process for rezoning. Whitfield acknowledged the mistake and denied attempting to ram through the project without public input.
More than 40 people attended the public information meeting Sept. 13, which was hosted by the county, at the Walker County Civic Center. Project opponents at that meeting peppered Mandell with questions and concerns about traffic, school capacity, trespassing and other issues if the development proceeds.
The planning commission at its Sept. 16 meeting heard from concerned citizens and received a petition with the names of more than 100 opponents — including many property owners in the adjoining Mission Glen subdivision — before unanimously voting not to recommend the rezone.
Many residents in the area have opposed the development because of the increased traffic it would bring. Within the last year, the county also approved a planned unit development of nearly 500 houses, to be built over the next five to seven years, at the corner of Happy Valley Road and Battlefield Parkway.