Quote:
Originally Posted by Rail Claimore
If you honestly believe that Madison compares to the likes of any of the other suburbs you mentioned (save Daphne and Fairhope, I don't know terribly much about the Mobile/Baldwin County area), you're mistaken.
Hoover, which was mentioned earlier, has what has become THE retail focal point of the entire Birmingham region: Riverchase Galleria and its surrounding stores and office development. For Madison to be an equivalent to Hoover for its own respective size category, Madison would need the University Drive corridor from Old Monrovia to Providence Main, and it does not. That's all Huntsville. Ditto for Homewood, which has Brookwood Village and the retail areas west of I-65 on Lakeshore Drive.
Mountain Brook? That's the wealthiest community in the entire state, where practically every household is worth millions. Madison, in comparison, is mainly a middle to upper-middle class suburb of Huntsville. The wealthiest neighborhoods in the Huntsville metro area (that could be compared to Mountain Brook) are not in Madison... they are near or along the Mountains that form the eastern border of Huntsville's urban area: The Ledges, Wakefield, Twickenham, Hampton Cove, etc. Ditto for Vestavia Hills, which is really just an extension of Mountain Brook.
Trussville is still too small and underdeveloped to make a comment on.
The only other city in the state that can be compared to Madison in terms of its economic and residential role to its bigger neighbor is Prattville.
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and even that is a stretch, Prattville is it's own city in it's own county, not sharing borders as Madison does. Prattville has a fast growing retail environment something Madison doesn't at least not yet. The Shoppes at Riverbend could change that. It's a bit odd to hear Madison cry about not having a hospital yet Hoover a city of nearly 65,000 doesn't have one either
if I am not mistaken.
More on Madison's annexation, the qestion is why did they wait till HSV
showed interest? Madison should be proactive instead of being asleep at the wheel.
"Probate Judge Mike Davis and Limestone County Commission Chairman David Seibert said the land will be developed one day, raising several questions, including who will provide emergency services, such as fire and law enforcement, and where schoolchildren will be zoned.
The annexed land also complicates Limestone's ability to manage elections, Davis said, because the many district lines for various offices are complicated enough.
"That we simply have elections under such chaotic conditions, I've always said it's a miracle," Davis said. "Thank God for computers is all I can say."
Seibert said it worries him that Madison could reap part of the tax base from the annexed land in Limestone County when the commission is paying for some local services.
The property, less than two miles from County Line Road, is in the district of Madison City Councilman Steve Haraway. He said one of the property owners told him Huntsville wanted to annex his and his family's property and use it for a new north-south sewer line.
"He told me they would rather be in Madison than in Huntsville, especially since he has one of our city wells on his property," said Haraway, who also serves on the city's Water and Wastewater Board.
The requests for the Limestone property came during the controversy over developer Louis Breland's effort to deannex 263 acres from Madison. A large retail development is planned for the site off Zierdt Road at Interstate 565.
"We had the deannexation issue going on and then we find out Huntsville is trying to annex property where two of our city wells are located," Haraway said. "We don't want to be known as the council that completely lost the city."
He said the paperwork was completed just before the council's March 26 meeting, so instead of waiting two more weeks for a second reading as council rules require, the rules were suspended and the annexations were added to the agenda and approved.
"This was about us protecting our water supply," Haraway said.
Ricky Pounders, general manager of the Water and Wastewater Board, said the city has 20-year contracts on the wells, which are protected by Madison laws that protect the area. If that property went into another city, Madison's laws wouldn't apply.
Huntsville has already annexed property along Segers Road from Old Highway 20 to north of the railroad tracks, just south of the property annexed by Madison. "
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