By Andrew Edwards
Elmore/Autauga News Staff Writer
Top Photo: Eric Isom, Chief Development Officer for Ball Ventures, addresses Council members.
At the Prattville City Council meeting Tuesday, May 18, four councilmembers voted to rezone the property located at Old Farm Lane South and Vista Point Boulevard, or “the land behind High Point,” from R-4 to B-2, against the wishes of the private property owners.
The owner of the property is Ball Ventures, LLC. The petitioner for the ordinance was the City of Prattville.
The decision passed 4-3 with John Chambers, Jerry Starnes, Blair Gornto and Lora Lee Boone voting for the rezoning. Marcus Jackson, Albert Striplin and Robert Strichik voted against.
The dilemma surrounding this particular piece of property is that Ball Ventures (BVCV) claims the City of Prattville did not consult them in the rezoning of their property.
It’s documented on January 21st that the Planning Commission voted 6-1 in opposition to pushing the rezoning ordinance to the Prattville City Council, citing that they wanted legal counsel from the city’s attorney before acting too quickly.
Ball Ventures had their own ordinance on the agenda Tuesday night for the same plot of land. Their proposal called for rezoning of two 4-acre parcels of land to B-2, while the rest of the approximately 30 acres would stay R-4. That ordinance was tabled by the council.
At the public hearing before the vote, Jim Edwards, Real Estate Lawyer for Balch and Bingham LLP, spoke on behalf of his clients BVCV. He expressed his concerns regarding the city’s plan to rezone the entire property to B-2.
“This is not a resolution that’s going to end up in a positive development. There’s no development, period. There’s no development proposed,” Edwards said. “The City of Prattville, on its own admission, did this against my client’s objections. Although the city has broad powers in zoning, those powers are limited. You can’t be arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory. In this case, all of those are being violated.”
Edwards said that it was important to note that the adjoining property (High Point Shopping Center) is largely unproductive and adding additional retail at this time could diminish the value of that property.
He also pointed out that on February 4th, the planning staff for the City of Prattville recommended that the zoning for the area should remain as is.
Eric Isom, Chief Development Officer with Ball Ventures, spoke before the vote took place as well, explaining potential plans that BVCV could have on the property.
“If the zoning is not changed, we were in the process of a great multi-family housing project. That all got put on hold when this application was submitted. Nobody has offered, in any of the previous planning commission meetings to my knowledge, any good reason why it makes sense to make this change. What it does, is that it stops us and interferes with the project that we were moving down the road with, which would bring great multi-family housing to the city, increased tax base and be a benefit in every way,” Isom said.
“If it is changed back to B-2, that 38 acres will sit for probably many years with nothing on it. It’s not in a location that (is) conducive to commercial development. The retail and office market has softened with Covid, as we know. The highest and best use of that property is multi-family.”
After four of the councilmembers voted to move forward with the change from R-4 to B-2, their opinions on the matter were expressed individually.
Blair Gornto, who presides over district five, was first to speak.
“While yes, the Planning Commission did not recommend changing that zoning, that’s all good and well and that’s their opinions, but I don’t believe any of the folks that got up here tonight and spoke in opposition to that ordinance have the best interests of District Five in mind. I’ve spoken to folks in my district and I haven’t heard one person say that they support any multi-family dwellings in our district, so I’m going to continue to fight for that,” Gornto said.
Council President Jerry Starnes spoke next.
“In the plans for 2040, one thing we did hear, is that the City of Prattville does not want any more apartments at this time. Will that change down the line? I mean, applications for apartments can be submitted again. But at this time, we heard from the public that they don’t want any more apartments,” Starnes said.
Lora Lee Boone gave more background as to why these types of decisions are made.
“We take into account what the fire department says, what the police department says, what the city says, and what these constituents say. How does this affect education, population growth? The reason I voted yes is because input has been coming to us from various areas, not just what our constituents say. We have to look at the big picture, and when we do, some of these other departments are also affected by the zoning that we choose. So, when we make these zoning decisions, it’s an overall holistic type of thing that we’re looking at – more than where you just own property and personal rights,” Boone said.
“I’m a big individual rights person as it comes to big government, so when I make these decisions, I do not take them lightly because I wouldn’t want the government telling me what to do with my property – but they do. They tell me whether or not I can build an addition to my house, or what type of materials I can use. Everyday the government makes restrictions on personal property, and this is just one small example.”
John Chambers spoke last.
“I spend a lot of time reaching out to my constituents and receive their feedback. There’s a lot of other folks, city folks, people who work for the city and other public businesses in town that have expressed a lot of concern of this, so I thought a lot about it, prayed a lot about it, and that’s where my decision ended up lying,” Chambers said.
After the council session concluded Mayor Bill Gillespie gave some insight into how he views that particular property.
“There’s no crystal ball right now. At one point in time that plot of land was zoned FAR, and there’s never been anything built there. To me, this opens it up as a clean slate. So, if they (BVCV) do come back with something that’s either a B-1, B-2, or R-4 then that’s fine. Only time will tell. Just because the council voted on B-2 then that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll stay that way forever,” Gillespie said.
“I wish BVCV the best in their endeavors. I look forward to working with them on other projects, whether it’s on this piece of property or some other piece of property that they own here in Prattville. Hopefully, we will have a project coming to this piece of property soon.”
BVCV representatives Isom and Edwards left the meeting after the decision was made to table their ordinance. Edwards did not mince words about his feelings for the situation in speaking to the EAN.
“They cannot unilaterally, with no reason whatsoever, rezone a citizen’s property. So, I think they acted inappropriately,” Edwards said.
Edwards said that legal action is not out of the realm of possibility and that it would be something that his clients could consider. He said that there are other avenues to protect their property rights.
So, this may not be the end of this matter, at least as far as representatives for BVCV are concerned.
As for Councilor Marcus Jackson, who voted against the rezoning, he told the EAN today, “This property was rezoned in 2019 for the MVAH apartments and I didn’t think it was right to change the zoning considering owners asked us not to. Also, as far as the Planning Commission is concerned, we reached out to them for advice and they advised us not to rezone. Two entities requested the property not be rezoned and I figure we needed to follow the experts. Our job is to protect the city.”
