Walker Springs Public Hearing Recap

 Walker Springs Public Hearing Recap

Once again, our community is simply the best! The residents and students from the University of Montevallo really advocated and challenged city leadership to address our concerns and to focus on responsible growth.

Here’s a recap for those unable to attend the City Council’s public hearing on November 14th. It was a longer than normal city council meeting due to the number of agenda items and the mayor taking the time to address the council and those in attendance before diving into the agenda. The mayor acknowledged the various concerns communicated over the past few months and praised the community engagement that has been displayed at recent meetings. He stated again that the city has not done a good job at educating the public about these developments and promised himself, the city manager and public relations manager would improve the information disseminated in the future.

The only person who spoke in favor of the amended plan was Newcastle’s Engineer, in comparison to the 12 who spoke in opposition. The council displayed a clock to encourage comments to be limited to 3 minutes but accommodated the few that exceeded. Each speaker asked impactful questions and reminded the council of the recklessness and destruction this development can pose to our community. Community members reiterated the need to conduct research and to commission an independent hydrogeological survey before allowing the development to proceed. The council was more responsive and tried to address specific questions compared to prior meetings, but some questions remained unaddressed.

Since the amended map was not shared in the agenda packet, an Alabaster resident personally shared a printout of the amended map and a map of the impacted wetlands with each council member and the mayor to ensure their eyes reviewed it before voting. The wetland map was from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Wetland Mapper tool that allows you to view wetlands with Find Location.

Of course, as expected the council voted to approve the amended plan. Honestly, seeing the council at least respond to questions and the mayor acknowledge our concerns, is another small victory. With time as these developments progress, we will see if the city upholds its commitment to increased transparency and communication.  

If you missed it, Fox 6 ran a story before the public hearing featuring Dr. Mike Hardig and then a follow up on the 10PM newscast mentioning the outcome of the vote.