Originally Posted by 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.
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