Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

by Marian Accardi March 24, 2008 Huntsville Times

A slow leak over the last month at the 10-acre lake at Bridge Street Town Centre in Cummings Research Park is the result of a faulty structural connection with one of the storm drain pipes, according to the center's marketing director Niki Hogan.

Divers were brought in to locate the problem, which began more than a month ago, Hogan said. Repairs should be made and the lake refilled in two weeks at the most.


Eric Schultz Photo
The paddle boats and Bridge Street's signature gondola are out of commission until the lake is refilled.
The water level is too low, she said, for the gondola and paddle boats to operate right now.
"We look forward to our lake being 100 percent filled and operable in the coming weeks," said Hogan.

[Rail Claimore]

^I was walking around Bridge Street earlier today and was wondering about the water level.

[HSVTiger]

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletim...730.xml&coll=1

By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer john.peck@htimes.com
Amendment keeps 10-story limit downtown

A divided City Planning Commission approved a controversial zoning amendment Tuesday night that retains a 10-story, 150-foot cap on downtown buildings but sets staggered height limits near downtown neighborhoods.

The 4-3 vote sends the measure to the City Council, which will have the final say.
Developers Randy Schrimsher, Scott McLain and Peter Lowe agreed to the tiered height limits abutting neighborhoods but pushed for unlimited heights in core areas. Schrimsher said such limits will stifle future development.

"We've got to have people who will put projects downtown that will take us to the next level," he said. "A 10-story limit does not do that."

No height limits would apply to areas outside Huntsville's traditional downtown, including industrial-zoned areas and property along Memorial Parkway and other major thoroughfares.


If this stupid amendment stands then Huntsville's tallest building will be built in the Medical District,( Gallatin, Madison or Franklin St) or right along the Parkway or possibly Church St around the depot. Once again poorly presented, (anybody heard of a map or diagram). I expect there will be intense pressure to not pass this. People can be stupid real easy.

[mlog]

Huntsville's skyline will be in Research Park.

By the way, I noticed today the signs went up on the Westin Hotel at Bridge Street.

[croberts]

Height limits on downtown: And they want to keep young people here right? lol yeah...ok This city is ready to graduate. For a city that is somewhat off the beaten path from a major roadway, we've done pretty good in my opinion. Also considering the fact that we have some people in high places in this city that want to see huntsville be a Mayberry.

[BKOTH97]

Wow...this is a big move into Limestone for Huntsville. Does anyone have a map of the area being annexed? This expansion increases the size of Huntsville's land area by about 7.8 sq mi or 4.4%.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2008/03/...000_acres.html

Huntsville is poised to expand its city limits in Limestone County with its largest annexation in nearly two decades - and a new school may be part of the deal.

The City Council is expected to consider three annexation requests tomorrow night covering nearly 5,000 acres, all in Limestone County. The property is in the area of the original Greenbrier Restaurant.

An accompanying "memorandum of understanding" demands that a city park and K-8 school be built on the land if certain growth conditions are met or the property owners have the right to "deannex."

Records show the annexing landowners, affiliated with the Albert McDonald family, will donate 30 acres for the school site, proposed for just north of old Alabama 20 and west of Segars Road.

School Board President Doug Martinson said tonight Schools Superintendent Dr. Ann Roy Moore briefed board members on the proposal. Martinson said the school board will consider the three-way memorandum of agreement next month.

"When we're getting free land and the city has determined this is a good path of growth, we certainly want to cooperate with them in accomplishing this," Martinson said.

The conditional agreement calls for a school to be built four years after the property transfer or when certificates of occupancy have been issued for 800 homes in that Limestone County area, whichever comes later.

"I think we have to work with the city to see what's in the city's growth plans," he said. "This is a good example of where we're cooperating with the city to expand."

City Planner Dallas Fanning said much of the property requested to be annexed is in the corridor of the proposed Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta freeway. The land is likely get a mixture of zoning, including industrial, residential and commercial, he said.

"It's in our long-term plan. It's a strategic annexation," he said.

Property owners requested the annexation. "It's probably the largest one we've done since the late 1980s to early '90s," Fanning said.

[-=skywalker=-]

What I don't get, Huntsville city officials have been on the record saying they are using Chattanooga as a model for developement downtown. If that's the case, have any city officials ever been to Chattanooga?! There's over a dozen buildings in downtown Chattanooga over 10 storys tall, the tallest being 21 storys. But that's cool, Huntsville is shooting itself in the foot with this height limit...maybe Decatur can continue to get it's act together and steal the thunder in North Alabama.

[marvingardns]

Old Greenrbrier, across from the gin and the country store. That crossroads has such rural old country charm, and good white sauce too... and not to mention the best hushpuppies north of the river. To see Huntsville annex that is a sure sign that times are a' changing.

Now it will be flat neighborhoods of vinyl siding and high-pitched rooves and no trees whatsoever. Too bad. The changing times can't even be tasteful in what they bring.

[Huntsville_secede]

The updated full article

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletim...520.xml&coll=1

I think this is a good annexation the area is along 565 west of county line an area that has very limited development. I hope this is another big step toward the development of the Huntsville to Decatur 565 corridor.

[HSVTiger]

Between 2006 and 2007, the Huntsville metropolitan area experienced the 50th fastest rate of growth in the United States and the most rapid expansion out of all Alabama metros.

During that year the population here jumped from 378,054 to 386,632, a 2.3 percent increase, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census report compared population shifts in the 363 major metropolitan areas in the United States. Based on percentage increases, Palm Coast, Fla., was the fastest growing metro area in the nation and Columbus, Ga., the most rapidly declining.

During that one-year span, the population of Decatur's MSA, which includes Lawrence and Morgan counties, also increased slightly, growing from 148,035 to 149,279.

[HSVTiger]

Why this hasn't been done sooner is a mystery since Huntsville has been in aerospace and defense for over 50 years and nearly every aerospace/defense contractor in the country has a presence here. Sounds like the state is trying to catch up to what Huntsville has been doing for decades.
Wonder if they could make ALDOT part of that strategy

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.- The Alabama Development Office will open an office in Huntsville in a bid for new aerospace and defense business for Alabama.

Gov. Bob Riley is expected to be in Huntsville tomorrow to officially announce the new satellite office. ADO Director Neal Wade says his office has been working on a major aerospace strategy for some time, and this Huntsville location is a major component of that.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by Huntsville_secede

The updated full article

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletim...520.xml&coll=1

I think this is a good annexation the area is along 565 west of county line an area that has very limited development. I hope this is another big step toward the development of the Huntsville to Decatur 565 corridor.

I see it as laying the groundwork for the Memphis/Huntsville/Atlanta Expressway. Most of the corridor will be in the Huntsville City limits from the time it crosses I-65.

[HSVTiger]

A brief review of Cantina Laredo which just opened it's first Alabama location at Bridge Street.

Cantina Laredo is an upscale-casual Mexican restaurant. Ask general manager Dan McClain about specialties, and he will mention "top shelf guacamole" for an appetizer, "camaron poblano asada" as an entree and "casarita" margaritas.

The guacamole is prepared tableside; the entree he named is steak wrapped around a pepper stuffed with shrimp, mushrooms, onions and cheese; and all margaritas use freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice.

Cantina Laredo seats nearly 300, including 11 tables outside along Bridge Street's main drag. A circular bar is the centerpiece of the decor, which is bright and cheerful.

Cantina Laredo is operated by a corporation called Consolidated Restaurant Operations. CRO's other concepts include Cool River, El Chico, Good Eats, III Forks, Lucky's Cafe and Silver Fox Steakhouse.

The first Cantina Laredo appeared in Addison, Texas, in 1984 offering gourmet dishes from Mexico City. The company's publicity material claims Cantina Laredo "is to Mexican what P.F. Chang's is to Chinese.
HSV Times review

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Hey I was wrong about the sculpture
It looks like it is going to the UAH campus instead.
Oh well it was a 50/50 chance.

this Geode sculpture has been placed in front of library at UAH. Now we
need more downtown

[daveyp]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

this Geode sculpture has been placed in front of library at UAH. Now we
need more downtown

yeah i saw them placing it today when i got out of class. can anyone explain the significance of it? and why it's so ugly? i think we could always use more art downtown and anywhere. but i'd rather it be something attractive instead of a pile of industrial garbage like that.

[HSVTiger]

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer marian.accardi@htimes.com
Downtown project will also increase parking spots

A three-story, 30,000-square-foot building that's expected to be leased primarily for offices is being built at the southwest corner of Church Street and Cleveland Avenue - the latest addition to Depot Professional Village.

The developer is Flamingo Inc., a partnership of Dr. John Wisda, a residential and commercial developer and medical director of Crestwood Medical Center's emergency department, and Huntsville lawyer Michael Brodowski. Wisda and Brodowski also remodeled a building and two former lumber sheds at the site, where Dilworth Lumber Co. was located. Those buildings have about 20,000 square feet in all.
This latest project will add 120 parking spots to Depot Professional Village.

Construction of the building's shell should be finished in about six months, he said. Spaces will then be built to suit the tenants.

The prime contractor is Pearce Construction, and McDonald Brothers Construction is doing the site work. L. Hughes Associates is the architect.

A 28,000-square-foot building at the back of the site - developed by Wisda's Wiz Kidz LLC - has a mix of restaurants and offices.

Wisda also plans to develop another building across Cleveland Avenue.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by daveyp

yeah i saw them placing it today when i got out of class. can anyone explain the significance of it? and why it's so ugly? i think we could always use more art downtown and anywhere. but i'd rather it be something attractive instead of a pile of industrial garbage like that.

It looks cool at night..
I always liked the other sculptures on the UAH campus.

In May 1989, the Arts Council kicked off the Art in Public Places Program by sponsoring a sculpture competition. Fifty-four sculptors from across the Southeast submitted work.


A panel of 15 local jurors, chaired by Dennis Peacock, a professor of art at the University of Tennessee, selected five finalists.

Geode, by Mississippi artist Skip Van Houten, was chosen.

A geode, when it occurs in nature, is a rock formation that's lined with crystals. Van Houten's piece was a five-ton sculpture made of steel and Alabama marble.

Van Houten received a $10,000 commission funded by the City of Huntsville with assistance from the Arts Council.

[Huntsville_secede]

Thought we would rank higher, I don't understand the whole lowered ranking because of the remote thing though cause lots of cities are hours away from other large cities.

City ranks in top 100 for living, business
Friday, March 28, 2008
From staff reports
Huntsville Times

Huntsville No. 86 in 'Best Places to Live and Launch'

Huntsville ranked No. 86 in Fortune Small Business magazine's "100 Best Places to Live and Launch 2008."

Huntsville's strength, according to the ranking, is being a strong engineering and technology hub. Its weakness: being hours away from other urban areas.

"Now a NASA hub, the city is a lively place for engineering and tech startups."

The article notes that Boeing and Toyota have branch offices here and calls the city's work force well-educated.

"The area's Cummings Research Park is the second-largest research park in the country; and of special note is the-soon-to-be-opened HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a $135 million project partly owned by the state of Alabama that will assist a dozen companies involved in synthetic DNA research," the magazine says.

The article also cites Huntsville's median home price - $145,000 - and commercial property prices running at about $20 a square foot.

A drawback is that the city is "remote," the magazine says. "You have to drive four hours before reaching Atlanta, and almost two hours for Birmingham. But there's plenty to enjoy right in town if you like the outdoors."

http://www.al.com/business/huntsvill...430.xml&coll=1

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by Huntsville_secede

Thought we would rank higher, I don't understand the whole lowered ranking because of the remote thing though cause lots of cities are hours away from other large cities.

City ranks in top 100 for living, business
Friday, March 28, 2008
From staff reports
Huntsville Times

Huntsville No. 86 in 'Best Places to Live and Launch'

Huntsville ranked No. 86 in Fortune Small Business magazine's "100 Best Places to Live and Launch 2008."

Huntsville's strength, according to the ranking, is being a strong engineering and technology hub. Its weakness: being hours away from other urban areas.

"Now a NASA hub, the city is a lively place for engineering and tech startups."

The article notes that Boeing and Toyota have branch offices here and calls the city's work force well-educated.

"The area's Cummings Research Park is the second-largest research park in the country; and of special note is the-soon-to-be-opened HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a $135 million project partly owned by the state of Alabama that will assist a dozen companies involved in synthetic DNA research," the magazine says.

The article also cites Huntsville's median home price - $145,000 - and commercial property prices running at about $20 a square foot.

A drawback is that the city is "remote," the magazine says. "You have to drive four hours before reaching Atlanta, and almost two hours for Birmingham. But there's plenty to enjoy right in town if you like the outdoors."

http://www.al.com/business/huntsvill...430.xml&coll=1

Yeah that was a dumb comment, Birmingham is remote then as well.
90 minutes from Nashville and I can be in downtown Atlanta in 3-3 1/2 hrs.
Bet they didn't take in account the time change from CST to EST.

[Colin Giersberg]

I am beginning to wonder which city I will end up living in, Huntsville, Madison, Decatur, or Athens. Huntsville and Madison seem to want as much of Limestone County as they can get, Athens doesn't like it, tries to get a bill passed to stop it, unless approved by the County Commission, fails at that, and then doesn't seem to care about annexing land, solely just to protect its own borders. And now that Bass Pro Shops is coming, I guess Decatur will be making a move on annexing land here too.
I live just off of Mooreville Road, north of US. 72, and Huntsville is only about 5 miles away from us. For now! I personally believe that the developers are building way too many homes for the BRAC folks, and I have only met one person that has moved here because of BRAC. Granted, I know that there are more here already, and that there are more coming, but it sure looks like the builders have overbuilt. I am rapidly being surrounded by new subdivisions. For example, since we moved here in 1999, there have been over 60 new subdivisions built in Limestone County, and that is just those east of I-65. There are 11 new subdivisions on Mooresville Road, between Huntsville / Brownsferry Rd., and Nick Davis Rd. There are 7 or 8 more on Newby Rd., between Huntsville / Brownsferry RD and US. 72. All of these are less than 5 years old, and while some are practically full, all but two are filling up fast. And those two new subdivisions were built just last summer.
Perhaps, it is time that the surrounding cities start building up, not out. One of the local farmers ( Isom's Orchard ) has their fruit trees backing up to another new subdivision, and I have heard that he is being sued by some of the neighbors because of the noise, and the pesticides that are necessary in his line of work. He even has trees planted to act as a buffer zone, but apparently that doesn't matter.
Now we all know that Isom's has been around for quite some time, and the subdivision has not. You would think that these people would think that "hey, I am buying a house right next to an orchard. There will be noise, and they will spray pesticides to kill crop destroying insects. Maybe, it would be bettter to live somewhere else, so that we don't have to deal with those problems". The crazy thing about this is, these same people will probably get in their cars, drive over to Isom's and buy their peaches, apples, etc. and not realize that they want what Isom's has to offer on fruit, but they don't want to deal with the noise and pesticides. Well, you can't have one without the other.
Another problem I see is, how are all of these people going to get to work. US. 72 desperately needs to be widened from Athens, all the way to Rideout Rd. / Research Park Blvd. US. 72 was not built with consistent grades. The Eastbound Lanes are higher in some places and lower in others, when compared to the Westbound Lanes. Whenever the State and the Feds decide to upgrade the highway, lanes will have to be blocked off in order to do the work. We might as well get ready to sit in a parking lot, because that is what it will be. I think that Capshaw / Old Monrovia should be widened first ( Nick Davis, and Huntsville / Brownsferry Rd.too ), just to accomodate all of this extra traffic that will come when US. 72 does get widened, but as far as I know, there are no plans for this to happen. And as land gets developed, the cost to widen roads goes up greatly, due to having to buy the ROW, and the homes and businesses that are on the ROW. Also, utilities have to be moved, again adding to the cost.
I think we had better get started on the roads, now!!!

Regards, Colin
Currently an ALDOT employee working in Moulton, AL.