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City Council Recaps | Dec. 3, 2024

The Observer Staff

Opelika Council recognizes OHS football team

BY MICHELLE KEY
EDITOR@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM

OPELIKA — The Opelika Pickleball Club presented the city of Opelika with a check for $100,000 during the Dec. 3 city council meeting.
Also during the meeting Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller and the council members recognized the 2024 Opelika High School football team and coaches as well as the firefighters, police officers and Dispatcher of the Year honorees that were announced at the Second Annual Valor Awards dinner in November.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

Auburn Council denies townhome development application

BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
FOR THE OBSERVER

AUBURN — The Auburn City Council on Tuesday night unanimously denied a conditional use application to build a multi-unit townhome development after neighborhood residents voiced overwhelming opposition to the project. Those objections included concerns about maintaining community character, loss of vegetation and decreased property values, among other issues.
The Planning Commission originally recommended approving the conditional use by a vote of 4 to 3 at its Nov. 14 meeting. The proposed development, which is located at the end of Cherokee Road, would build eight townhomes in a subdivision that is currently nothing but single-family homes.
Ward 2 Council Member Kelley Griswold, who represents the area that includes the proposed development, said he opposed the proposal as is.
“I feel badly about the potential loss of the woods and the vegetation and whatnot, but I’m going to have to go along with the desires of the community, of the 23 citizens I’ve heard from,” Griswold said. “I feel strongly that my role is to support the desires of my constituents.”
While most citizens’ comments at Tuesday’s meeting addressed vegetation loss, the property’s poor drainage and maintaining the neighborhood’s character, others brought up concerns about how the proposal made its way before the council.
Brad Prater, whose property sits next to the property, said a letter he received clearly identified the proposal as a townhouse development while documents released at the Planning Commission meeting characterized it as a multi-unit development. He added that the city’s zoning ordinance makes a clear distinction between those two types of developments.
“At best this is an administrative oversight that should require readvertisement and rehearing at the Planning Commission level, and at worst this is a bait-and-switch tactic,” Prater said. “During the Planning Commission meeting video, you hear staff say that at this point you wouldn’t know if this was going to subdivide or not, which is incorrect.”
However, not every neighborhood resident opposed the townhome development.
Fellow neighborhood resident Sarah Collins, who has advocated for more affordable housing in the city at past city council meetings, offered a different perspective on the proposed development.
“I think I can speak for our neighbors in saying that we wish that it weren’t being developed, but because it is going to be developed, I actually support town homes going into this area. It is a quiet neighborhood. These [townhomes] go at the back of that neighborhood and give an opportunity for folks to join in this quiet community and allow a little gentle density to go in as well,” Collins said. “It provides more sustainable options to people, both from an environmental standpoint and a financial standpoint.”
Blake Rice, who is the vice president Barrett-Simpson Engineering and represented the developer at Tuesday’s meeting, told the council there is an alternative proposal that would build five or six single-family homes instead of the eight townhouses.
The developer can now go through the same process to apply for conditional use to build those single-family homes.
The council also addressed several other items of business:

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