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What is a Charrette?

Updated: June 8, 2010

Overview & Accomplishment Presentation

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Members of the Board of the Village of Spring Hill and other key volunteers have been busy in all kinds of meetings since the ordinances passed the City Council. There are so many details to finesse and funding challenges to be met and it simply takes time to accomplish everything. When everything is finalized and we have something concrete to announce you can be sure it will posted here as soon as legally possible. So keep checking in from time to time to see what's what...

Click the buttons below to view the suggested development envisioned by
Dover, Kohl & Partners, Inc. (These are for illustration purposes only.)

New zoning with City Council Ammendments [pdf]  9-08

Village of Spring Hill Public Forum
Government Plaza Auditorium
Thursday, August 7, 2008
7:00 p.m.

Council Members Reggie Copeland and Gina Gregory have called a public meeting to discuss the proposed optional zoning overlay and the proposed Blueprint for the Spring Hill area.  These have both been approved by the City’s Planning Commission and will soon be acted upon by the City Council.

The optional zoning allows the necessary coding to guide development toward a pedestrian-friendly, walkable neighborhood.  Together, The Blueprint for Spring Hill and the zoning can help improve the aesthetics, safety, and economic viability of our community.

It is critical that we show City Council members our support of this Ordinance and the Plan by attending this important meeting at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, August 7, Government Plaza Auditorium downtown. 

Together We Can Make It Happen
Community Meeting—Thursday, August 7—7:00 p.m.
See You There!

Planning Commission Endorses Village Zoning
We could not have done it without you. Because of the level of community support shown at the June 19th meeting, the Planning Commission passed Spring Hill's optional zoning ordinance.  A failure at the Planning Commission would have killed the zoning needed for property owners to build in the walkable main street format, so this was a critical win. Now the ordinance gets re-advertised and will appear before the City Council in five or six weeks. This will be the final step in a very lengthy process. Stay tuned for additional information as we approach the "final vote." Together, we can make it happen

>>>> Text of Thomas Myers comments: (The Village of Spring Hill Board Member)

My name is Thomas Myers and I live in Spring Hill. I am a Board Member for the Village of
Spring Hill, Inc. My wife Kellie and I previously raised in excess of $250,000 to redevelop
Lavretta Park, also in Spring Hill. I do not get paid by the Village of Spring Hill, nor do I benefit
from its efforts.

I am speaking before you today in support of the proposed zoning and subdivision ordinances.
First and foremost, this new zoning is completely optional. It’s an important word. I will say it
once more…optional. So you might ask yourself, “If this is optional, why is anyone opposed to it?” That’s a great question. In my judgment, there are three possible reasons:

Reason Number 1. Opponents of this optional zoning are basically happy with the way Spring
Hill’s commercial areas look and perform today—high vacancy rates and marginal sales are
perfectly fine. They feel that over 600 community members are wrong in calling for a better
Spring Hill. They feel that donations and grants in excess of $1M were simply a mistake, and
that things really are ok. They look back at the 30+ years of stagnation and say, “Ah, but it’s just
about to get better on its own” or “Some flowers and landscaping would do the trick.” So that’s
possibility number one. Denial.

Reason Number 2. Opponents of this optional zoning are afraid of change. Change is difficult:
in life, in business, and in the community. That doesn’t obviate the need for change. Mobile’s
current land use regulations were drafted in a different era, and while they work well in some
locations—say Airport and Schillinger—they are much less effective within communities. They
generate huge expanses of asphalt and discourage pedestrian use, in essence making it
impossible to create a neighborhood center.

The Village of Spring Hill addressed these challenges by hiring nationally recognized town
planning firm Dover, Kohl & Partners. The plan and associated zoning were crafted based on
their extensive experience and using best-practice community-based planning techniques—not to
mention the input of 600+ community members. Furthermore, this zoning is an example of
Smart Growth, a policy that was adopted by the City of Mobile in 2003 and has been awaiting
this very type of application. That’s potential number two. Fear of change.

Reason Number 3. Opponents of the optional zoning could be misinformed. They could be
confused by scare tactics, misinformation, and fear-mongering. If you look through the provided
handouts, you will see several examples of the extent to which some are willing to go.
The Village of Spring Hill has been completely open in its efforts: it has posted all documents on
its web site for review, has requested feedback, has held numerous community meetings to
answer questions, and has revised the zoning ordinance several times in response to community
concerns. The Village of Spring Hill has been fair and honest throughout.
Misinformation and Deception. Reason number three.

So the original question was why someone would oppose an optional overlay. Judge for yourself
where the opposition’s arguments fit. Denial… Fear of change… Misinformation and
deception...

Taking private property for roads or sidewalks, cutting down legacy oak trees, building massive
parking garages, limiting parking for the old or disabled, restricting emergency access, “stealing”
private parking, rerouting cars through neighborhoods—that’s not what the document says.….
That’s what opponents say the document says. There’s a big difference!

Safety of on-street parking and eliminated turn lanes…both compelling and often-used arguments, except for the small issue that they are not a part of the zoning. So the next logical question is where do we go from here? The period since the last public hearing has been complete chaos. Remember, the opposition’s only demand at the last meeting was for the zoning to be optional.

While they publicly claim the zoning is 90% of the way there, what they don’t mention is that
the remaining 10% is the final nail in its coffin. If pushed, it will be the death of an already
watered down ordinance. Requests for additional time to compromise are simply appeals to
allow further spread of misinformation and fear that the community can ill afford.

All I ask of you today is to give it a chance, and pass the ordinance as amended. Please look past
empty rhetoric and embrace the greatest good for the whole community—not just to appease a
few outspoken critics who hope to kill these plans. In making your decision, please rely on the
professional guidance of highly reputable town planners and apply a critical eye to
recommendations from self-appointed experts who have no background in urban planning. Also, please give credence to the desires of the 600 community members who helped create this plan. I
ask that you give the optional overlay the chance it deserves.

I would like to conclude with a brief quote that my wife and I ran across on a rare evening out
without our children. It goes:


“My town has the right to my civic loyalty. It supports me and I should support it. My
town wants my citizenship, not my partisanship; my friendliness, not my dissensions;
my sympathy, not my criticism…It has done some things that are better than others;
the best things I should seek to make better, the worst things I should help suppress.
Taken all in all, it is my town and it is entitled to the best there is in me.”


The ironic part is that we were eating at Wintzell’s Oyster House, a restaurant celebrating its 70th
year in business at the same location—1938; things certainly have changed since then. Seventy
years…in a building similar to that which we’re trying to allow, as an option. A building that’s
illegal today.

Thank you very much for your time and your consideration.

>>> Linda St. John's closing remarks:

My name is Linda St. John and I am President of TVSH     
At the April 17th Planning Commission meeting, The Village of Spring Hill asked that any action on our proposed coding be held over while we made an effort to reach a compromise with a few people who still had concerns about the Plan.  That evening, our planners Dover, Kohl & Partners met with those concerned citizens for 3 hours.

As a result of that meeting it was recommended by our Planners to make the coding optional in order to maintain the integrity of the plan.

Optional means that no one is required to do anything to his or her property.  If a landowner does not want to apply the new coding, that is his or her prerogative; however, it does not prevent other people from moving forward with their plans allowing economic development in Spring Hill to proceed.  This decision respects everyone’s property rights. 

In addition to making the coding optional, more changes were made to the ordinance to accommodate their other objections and given to them for review 4 days later. 

On May 28th all the changes were discussed with this group in a meeting with Reggie Copeland, Gina Gregory and Village of Spring Hill representatives.

Even though the ordinance was now completely optional including the access roads shown in the ordinance, 3 landowners wanted these roads through their property removed from the coding. 
Doug Anderson the representing attorney for 2 landowners was contacted at that time concerning the roads going through his client’s property and he declined the offer to have them removed.  He did however want further clarification to the document stating that the ordinance was optional. 

These few requested changes were made, and the ordinance was again distributed to this group on June 12th –one week ago—for them to review.

The Village of Spring Hill has negotiated in good faith over a 4-month period with the City of Mobile, Developers and Landowners making changes accordingly in an effort to satisfy the needs of as many people as possible. 

After extensive consultation with Dover-Kohl, the Village of Spring Hill feels that any further changes would compromise the overall integrity of the plan as designed by 600 people in the Spring Hill community during the planning process.

To help implement the new coding, the City’s Urban Development Department has attended a training session in Arizona as well as a customized workshop with Ken Groves, the director of the Montgomery Urban Development Department, who has first-hand experience with this type coding.

A number of developers have indicated their desire to develop using the proposed new coding.  You have already heard from two of them here today.  Another developer would like to build an art gallery with a condominium above in another area.  Additional interest has been expressed by other developers. 

There are also existing landowners who want to redevelop using the new coding.
There are an overwhelming number of residents who support the new coding that will make their vision for our community a reality.

The Village of Spring Hill has worked for over 3 years developing a plan that would be accepted by the city of Mobile and that included input from all stakeholders willing to participate.  

We have raised over 1 million dollars to be put back into the Spring Hill community. 

Members of our organization have unselfishly devoted countless hours using their expertise for no other reason than for the common good of our community.
   
This plan is based on Smart Growth principles that will create a main street type neighborhood and that have been successfully implemented in communities all over the country.  For questionable reasons, this plan has been torn apart and attacked by a small, very vocal group of people.  However the exact same plan is being applauded by so many others outside our community. 

Mobile is projected to change dramatically in the next few years.  Without a plan for our neighborhood we have no way of guiding the change that will be coming to Spring Hill. This is an exceptional plan and The Village of Spring Hill stands behind the zoning as it is presented to you today.  We respectfully ask the Planning Commission to vote in favor of the coding without any further delay.

06-03-08  FACT Sheet posted in response to misinformation in community

>>>  Read FACT SHEET now

05-07-08 UPDATE ON ZONING

At the Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, May 1, 2008, The Village of Spring Hill, Inc. requested and was granted a postponement of the new zoning ordinances relating to The Blueprint for Spring Hill. The postponement provides the opportunity to make some amendments to the zoning in order to allay concerns which have been expressed in the community.

Victor Dover of Dover, Kohl & Partners spoke before the Commission members, addressing some of the basic issues in the zoning and answering questions raised by property owners. Property owners and others spoke both for and against the new zoning. That evening following the Planning Commission meeting, Victor Dover met with a group of concerned property owners who had spoken against the zoning. Every effort is being made by all parties to agree on a compromise which will keep this Master Plan moving forward.

The Village of Spring Hill representatives along with Dover, Kohl & Partners continue to work with the Mayor, our Council Members, and the City of Mobile Urban Development Department to create these new zoning ordinances. We seek to encourage the implementation of  standards necessary for a traditional neighborhood development as envisioned by you and directed by our new Master Plan.  

Please e-mail members of the Planning Commission and the City Council voicing your support of our Plan.  They need to hear from you. 

Thank you for your continued support!

Board of Directors, The Village of Spring Hill

04-03-08

Thomas Myers has posted a blog concerning the ongoing situation with the coding proposed for The Village of Spring Hill. Visit Blog Now.  You will find many answers to commonly asked questions regarding this vital issue.

03-06-08

At their March 20, 2008, meeting, the City of Mobile Planning Commission placed on the Agenda for public hearing April 17, 2008, the following two Ordinances:

1. AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 64, ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MOBILE CODE TO ADD A NEW OVERLAY DISTRICT TO THE ZONING CODE THAT ENABLES TRADITIONAL, WALKABLE VILLAGE AND NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS WITHIN THE CITY OF MOBILE.

1. AN ORDINANCE TO THE SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS FOR THE CITY OF MOBILE, ALABAMA CODES TO CREATE NEW WALKABLE STREET STANDARDS THAT ENABLES TRADITIONAL, WALKABLE VILLAGE AND NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS WITHIN THE CITY OF MOBILE.

For printable versions of these two ordinances:
    >  Zoning Ordinance [PDF]
    >  Subdivision Ordinance [PDF]

03-06-08

Our first official step toward making the revitalization of The Village of Spring Hill occurred Thursday, March 6, 2008, when The Blueprint for Spring Hill was approved at the City of Mobile Planning Commission meeting. Approval of the Plan can now be placed on the Agenda of the Mobile City Council for their consideration. As a separate item, consideration of the Coding which will make it possible to implement the Plan will come before the Planning Commission in the upcoming weeks. We will inform you of that important Planning Commission date!

01-26-08

We have sent another email out to remind residents to come see Dover, Kohl & Partners make the presentation of the final plan on TUESDAY, JAN. 29, 2008 - 12 noon at the Government Plaza Auditorium [SEE EMAIL]. Reggie Copeland and Gina Gregory also mailed out a postcard to the residents in this area about this same meeting. We certainly encourage everyone who can to attend this big reveal.

If you are unable to attend we have posted the printed version of the final plan online. DOWNLOAD.

NOTE: This document is an 8 MB PDF and may take several minutes to load. If you want to have this document to read on your own computer Right-click on the download link above and choose "Save Target As..." the name of the file is "Blueprint_SpringHill_0108_sm.pdf". Due to the size of the document it is not easily emailed.

01-22-08 Update

This morning the City Council is supposed to vote on the Village of Spring Hill's request for a 6-month moratorium on new development in order to allow us time to pass the necessary zoning changes needed to carry out the revitalization plan developed by Dover, Kohl & Partners. As described in this day's Press-Register article the developer is unwilling to bend on their box-style design with street-side parking which brings us to this moratorium. It is our hope that our City Council has done their research on the situation and will comply with the wishes of the constituents who reside in these two districts.

---  WOW! The Moratorium was granted!!!!!!!!!

NOTE: Thank you, Mickie Russell of Dauphin Realty for speaking at the City Council meeting in support of the moratorium, and Johnny Roberts, for making the extra effort to call in his support - even though he was out out town on business.

01-21-08 Update

Late this afternoon we were informed that the City Council would be voting tomorrow, Jan. 22, 2008, on the proposed 6-month moratorium on development in the three designated areas in Spring Hill. We had previously understood that this vote would take place on Jan. 29 when Dover, Kohl is to present the more finalized plan for the revitalization of the Village of Spring Hill to the Council. An email is being sent out to notify residents of Spring HIll and supporters of the Village plan. VIEW EMAIL

01-13-08 Update

This article appeared in the Mobile Press-Register and provides further details of the ongoing situation concerning the placement of a "box-style" CVS being placed on the corner of Old Shell and McGregor - the heart of our new revitalization project.

VIEW article from the Mobile Press-Register

01-11-08 Update

The request for emails and phone calls to our Council Members was encouraging in many respects. so much so that we had to send ANOTHER email to ask that you stop emailing the Council as it was overwhelming their email boxes and causing a good deal of frustration.

VIEW article from Mobile Press-Register

01-10-08 Update

At their meeting on January 8, the City Council tabled for 2 weeks the vote to create a 6-month moratorium on commercial real estate development in the Old Shell/McGregor, Old Shell/Bit and Spur, and McGregor/Museum Drive areas.

As discussions proceed, it is essential that the residents of The Village of Spring Hill show their support for immediate compliance to our Master Plan which urban planners Dover, Kohl, & Partners and Spring Hill residents have jointly created. Our elected officials need to hear from you immediately.

PLEASE e-mail or contact ALL of the city officials listed below, and encourage your friends to do so, with this suggested message:

Please support immediate compliance to the Master Plan for
The Village of Spring Hill which has been created by Dover, Kohl, & Partners
with the input of hundreds of residents of Spring Hill.

NOTE: The vote originally scheduled to take place Jan. 5 was postponed until the Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 8 to allow Council members further time to study the materials. At this meeting Council members Gina Gregory and Reggie Copeland were to submit for approval a 6-month moratorium on commercial real estate development in the Old Shell/McGregor, Old Shell/Bit and Spur, and McGregor/Museum Drive areas. These are the three areas for which Dover, Kohl, and Partners is finalizing our exciting Master Plan. If approved, this moratorium will allow time for the completed Master Plan to be approved by the City and for appropriate new coding to be drafted before further development takes place.

An article in the Press Register earlier this week gave further details on this situation.

The Wrap-Up!

WOW! Residents, property owners and concerned citizens who attended the Nov. 13 presentation of THE PLAN for the Village of Spring Hill were certainly given an eyeful by Dover, Kohl & Partners. In a good way, mind you! 

Linda St. John opened the evening and thanked some of the key individuals who helped get this whole ball rolling. She began with Senator Hap Myers who received a huge ovation for his help in securing the funds that allowed us to hire Dover, Kohl & Partners. Then we were all enthused to have her welcome Mayor Sam Jones who was there to say a few words in support of our efforts. The Mayor had met with the Dover, Kohl group earlier that a day and we truly appreciate his support. In fact, the City is in the early phases of a similar project so what we are doing is in effect a preview of what is too come for more areas of the City. He received a warm standing ovation at the closing of his remarks by the more than 600 attending.

Again, project leader Margaret Flippen gave the group an overview of the situation and the areas being addressed by the plan. She introduced Victor Dover who began walking us through the various visionary possibilities for our area of town. One of the other artists, Steve Price also participated in this process.

There was a TON of information given to us in the presentation... see the links above for information and before and after pictures on each area.

Scenes from the Design Studio

Hands-On Design Night

We had a great crowd at the Springhill Baptist Church for the Hand-On design event. The crowd was divided up randomly to tables of eight people along with a facilitator to keep things on track and moving along. Each table was equipped with a large black and white map of one of the three focus areas (1. McGregor and Old Shell intersection 2. the Springhill and Museum drive intersection 3. the Bit & Spur and Old Shell intersection) along with color aerial maps, color markers, paper and pads of paper for notes and sketches. You could clearly see property lines, existing buildings and roads. Victor Dover again gave a brief overview of the significant and lasting impact good planning (good lines on a map) can make to a community and a region. Some of this was a rehash for those of us who attended the Kickoff but in a more condensed version. There was some new information presented about the consequences of road widening projects and the effect on an area such as ours that had us all going - "Well, obviously we don't want to widen our roads!"

Each table had about 45 minutes or so to discuss and draw out ideas on their particular map. So each of the three areas had several tables working independently on the solutions and possibilities. Naturally, there was some overlap of ideas which just goes to show that there is overall a fairly strong consensus about what we would like to see. Most every group mentioned at some point the desire to have an architectural review board put in place sooner rather than later.

All the participants would like to see echoes of what we have downtown - stucco, nice facades, old brick and iron work. We also want to throw in a little Fairhope, Savannah, Charleston and believe it or not New York City (in rep sect to the coolness of the Flat Iron building). Cohesiveness and a sense of history is desired. Something that our grand kids and great-grand kids will appreciate.

Kickoff Presentation

The Kickoff Presentation held the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 6 was well attended by concerned and curious residents of The Village of Spring Hill. Gina Gregory, one of our representatives on the City Council was also in attendance.

The Dover, Kohl group arrived in Mobile Monday morning. They had a short amount of time to move some of their equipment into the design studio (former "five gold monkeys" building) before being taken on a tour of downtown Mobile, Daphne and Fairhope. They were able to get more of a flavor of the area and it was acknowledged that while we are not Fairhope, we DO appreciate what Fairhope has achieved through a similar process of planning and smart design.

Margaret Flippen ran through an overview of current land use maps of our area and compared them to similar areas around the south such as Savannah, Winter Park, Charleston, Mountain Brook, Port Royal, Downtown Mobile, Fairhope, etc. The maps showed the three areas their group will be concentrating on 1. the main intersection of McGregor and Old Shell 2. the area at the bottom of Springhill Ave. where it intersects Museum Dr. and 3. the "V" area and surrounds at Bit & Spur and Old Shell.

Victor Dover, one of the principles of Dover, Kohl & Partners, gave us a wonderful taste of what is too come in his "Food for Thought" portion of the presentation. Included were photos of our area as it is today - there are some definite eyesores! While most of us agree that the core commercial area is in a state of decay and stagnancy he pointed out that this is actually a "plus." The buildings owners are even now looking for ways to attract new tenants or create new developments-many have agreed to 'see' what Dover, Kohl has to present before going forward. THIS means we are at a good time to actually create that "sense of place" he emphasized as being so desirable.

The photos and renderings he showed us were pretty amazing. They showed how an unattractive, smallish piece or real estate could be grown to an attractive, dignified (he likes that word), vital 'attraction' with thoughtful planning, design and greenery. Most of the examples he showed us took uninspired one-story buildings or strip-mall areas that were placed back from the street to allow for front parking into two- and three-story buildings with arches, balconies, large windows, iron work, tall doors and such fronted by a nice, walkable area. It showed visually how one piece of real estate could house a greater number of businesses. He stressed how important it is to present the face of the building to the street. How important walkability is. He also acknowledged that the City will need to be willing to bend, change or make exceptions to some of the current rules about sight lines, plantings, parking and usage. Dover, Kohl and Village representatives ARE meeting with the pertinent City departments and so far the City seems to be quite willing to work with us toward achieving the goals being presented by Dover, Kohl.

At the end of the meeting there was a question and answer session and concerns were voiced about the power lines being so unsightly in their current placement. As of now Alabama Power is working with Village reps to move the lines back. Yes, I think it is safe to say that 99.9% of the residents of our area would LOVE to see those things buried and safe from storms. Will that happen? That question can not be answered just yet, more information will be presented in the coming months as this is a work-in-progress.

Plans for future road widening of south McGregor Ave. and other streets in the area were brought up and the group in attendance agreed that this would be a mistake. While it seems this is something the City has considered, it seems hopeful that such plans can be blocked in favor of our improving the area.

Another question that was brought up concerned the possibility of being able to earmark a percentage of taxes garnered in the Village, generated by the Village for use in the Village. Evidently this is a common concern in communities and cities that Dover, Kohl has worked with in the past. The Dover, Kohl group will be presenting us with a "To Do" list for getting various City, County and State measures taken care of. Fortunately their group has become quite familiar with the State of Alabama regulations since they have recently completed a project for Montgomery...

Absentee, 'wait and see', and 'unwilling to invest' landlords were discussed and Dover, Kohl will show us ways to unjam seemingly untenable situations. Part of that will be presented by Ed Starkie, an economist, who will be able to show how investing in new bricks and mortar and smart planning will result in increased revenue for developers.

The key is having a community that cares and has a shared and common goal. THAT is key. Come join the fun on Thursday night to put markers and pens to maps!!! Personally I can not WAIT to start jotting some ideas down about what we can do with what we have under our noses.

If you can not make it Thursday BE SURE to attend on next Tuesday at St. Paul's Episcopal School theater auditorium to see what Dover, Kohl has to show us - what could become a reality for a lovely, dynamic and active Village!

All in all this was a fairly thorough and inspiring presentation. Yes, our mouths are watering from looking at the pretty pictures of other successful areas... The Dover, Kohl group is doing more for us than presenting "dreams" of what could be - they are presenting solid, workable and doable plans that will resonate for the next century. They are giving us a roadmap of HOW to go about creating the change and that in and of itself has great value. The next step for us as a community is to push for this change and to support the folks who are spearheading it be they developers, land owners or volunteers.

August, 2007 - The Village of Spring Hill has hired nationally recognized urban planning firm Dover, Kohl & Partners to assist with developing a master plan for the Spring Hill community. They rely heavily on community involvement held on site using an intensive week-long public design process called a charrette. Key components of the process include a commercial market analysis, high-level traffic plan, conceptual designs for primary intersections/commercial areas, and common design elements and public spaces.

We would like as many residents as possible to be involved in this historic undertaking. Please mark your calendars and set aside the time to attend one or all of the public events. We will undertake to post as much information as possible on this site for those of you who are unable to attend.

 “A goal without a plan is simply a wish.”
                                                    —Antoine de Saint-Exupery

TWO-DAY SITE VISIT BY TOWN PLANNERS

You may have noticed the presence of a group of curious note-takers wandering the streets of our commercial area recently. The Dover, Kohl & Partners team of town planners arrived in Spring Hill on Monday, September 24, for a two-day Site Visit. 

They used the visit to become more familiar with our area and to prepare for the upcoming Charrette process which will occur the week of November 6 – November 13.

The busy schedule included a trip downtown to meet with the Mayor and other representatives of the City as well as information-gathering sessions held in Spring Hill. The DKP team was charmed with Spring Hill!