Section 6.1

Development Toolbox

The residents of Fairhope have a number of implementation tools available, including: zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, infrastructure provision (water, sewer, streets), and capital improvements programming.

 Zoning Regulations

The City’s zoning ordinance (establishing use districts and regulating placement, spacing and size of land and buildings) is one of the most flexible, and therefore most important, tools of land development regulation and guidance.  The zoning ordinance is a set of instructions for land development and it should include a mix of policy and site-specific layout direction. 

Subdivision Regulations

Subdivision regulations address the layout and placement of a new or enlarged development within a specific zone.  Subdivision regulations are typically applicable to residential development, but are increasingly made applicable to non-residential development as well, in the form of office and industrial parks.  Subdivision regulations are an appropriate tool for analyzing the design of new development and its impact on existing public facilities and services.

Capital Improvements Program

The long-range capital improvements program (“CIP”) is a five- (5) year plan that prioritizes and directs resource allocation for appropriate projects including streets, sewers, and parks.  The CIP includes a financing plan for multi-year projects and a schedule for high priority projects.  A key component of the CIP is a one-year adopted capital improvements budget.

A CIP is an important implementation tool to ensure that Fairhope has planned the most cost-effective facilities and to determine whether the government will have the capability to fund needed public facilities and services.  The long-range CIP should reflect the size, approximate location and estimated costs of improvements needed to serve anticipated growth for the next fifteen to twenty years.  This plan is not a detailed engineering document, but it should provide enough specificity to determine which costs are required to remedy existing deficiencies and which costs provide new capacity that will be demanded by new development.

Some of the recommendations that should be included in Fairhope’s Capital Improvement Plan are:

·        Acquire additional park land in identified growth areas

·        Extend water and sewer services into particular geographic locations

·        Assess sidewalk conditions and design / implement a phased program to make improvements

·        Begin a comprehensive street overlay program to prioritize and proactively upgrade existing street conditions

Growth Coordination/ Phasing

To coordinate the timing, intensity and density of growth with the availability of public facilities and services, the City should prepare an overall growth coordination framework that identifies a timing pattern for growth.  The framework should include criteria for rezoning and subdivision approvals to be used by decision-makers when making determinations in outlying areas or the extra-territorial jurisdiction.

Impact Review

Review of proposed developments at a subdivision or rezoning level should include an analysis of on-site/site design impacts and off-site impacts such as traffic generation, road maintenance, emergency services, and open space/park/trail provision.  For projects of a pre-determined size or in specified locations, review could also include environmental, conservation and fiscal impacts.

Community Aesthetics

A unifying design concept can be an important element in reflecting a community’s character through its built environment.  Design at a community-wide scale can be incorporated into site design of commercial centers, new subdivision lot site criteria, and industrial sites.

Landscaping and Buffering

Landscaping and buffering serve a critical function of screening more intense uses from less intense uses as well as adding beauty and interest to individual building sites.  With a plan that blends commercial and retail uses as well as density changes across the City, it is necessary to ensure that different categories of use are buffered from each other.  It is equally important to ensure that landscaping is integrated into all site development to reflect Fairhope’s character and provide for a blending of uses in the existing landscape.

Section 6.2

Strategies Matrix

The following strategies are intended to guide the City’s implementation of the Fairhope Comprehensive Plan.  They are organized into five categories: Physical Image; Community Identity; Growth; Infrastructure; and Coordination.  Specific strategies are provided for each category within a phasing plan.  There are three suggested phases: Short Term (0-2 years), Medium Term (2-5 years) and Long Term (5+ years).

Short Term

0-2 yrs

Medium Term

2-5 yrs

Long Term

5+ yrs

Physical Image

Study parking and traffic patterns; implement necessary improvements

v

Consider creation of overlay districts in zoning ordinance to reinforce special characteristics of identifiable areas of City

v

Encourage location of public buildings Downtown

v

Prepare urban design guidelines

v

Prepare a streetscape and landscape plan

v

Consider creation of business improvement district for Downtown to provide parking and maintenance

v

Evaluate current signage system to determine legibility and effectiveness for guiding tourists

v

Identify, evaluate and build necessary gateways at major entrances to the City and neighborhoods

v

Continue program to improve, enhance and preserve aesthetic qualities in the public rights-of-way (lighting, sidewalks, streets, landscaping)

v

Continue to include in the Capital Improvements Program the change from above ground to below ground utilities

v

Prepare an ordinance for the City of Fairhope that creates the mechanisms and procedures for the establishment of historic districts

v

Complete the historic resources survey for the City of Fairhope

v

Community Identity

Short Term

0-2 yrs

Medium Term

2-5 yrs

Long Term

5+ yrs

Quantify and understand contributions of tourism to local economy

v

Establish a “tourist route” through City that relates to established districts and neighborhoods, important public buildings, and the waterfront/bay

v

Maintain and reinforce the tourist hub in Downtown and Pier/ waterfront that has specialty stores and lodging facilities catering to tourists

v

Reuse vacant publicly owned buildings to support surrounding uses

v

Consider preparation of development guidelines that require new development to respond to constraints imposed by topography and views; define important view corridors

v

Identify important watershed areas, natural drainageways and gullies and restrict the nature of development in those areas.  Promote these areas as parks and trails

v

Ensure that new developments appropriately balance hardscape with natural landscaping and adopt measures to reduce off-site runoff as much as possible

v

Growth

Short Term

0-2 yrs

Medium Term

2-5 yrs

Long Term

5+ yrs

Prepare a specific land use plan for extraterritorial jurisdiction and coordinate strategies with County

v

Develop an annexation plan and policies including zoning

v

Determine areas of varying levels of improvement priorities to support new development

v

Identify high priority development areas and encourage new development to locate in those areas through capital improvements program and location of infrastructure

v

Establish phased growth areas to target future development

v

Discourage public investment (buildings, infrastructure, services) beyond or outside of planned growth areas

v

Collaborate with existing property owners within extraterritorial jurisdiction to encourage new development opportunities