DAPHNE — Developers at a site review Wednesday presented plans for 33 single-family, single-story residential units, to locate on a 9-acre tract in the Lake Forest subdivision.

At past Daphne Planning Commission meetings, developers had requested a re-zoning from R-3, high density, single-family housing, to R-4, high density, multifamily housing to expand Grande Pointe Apartments. The owner on Sept. 4 pulled the request from the City Council’s agenda after public conflict.

The new proposal works with the property’s current zoning of R-3, according to John Peterson, a developer with Hatch Mott MacDonald.

The development deviates slightly from an R-3 zoning because individual lots will not be made, Peterson said.

“It’s considered one parcel of land,” Peterson said.

“It’s an R-4 design that meets the R-3 density,” Commissioner DeLeon Thomas said.

However, Peterson said, “It can’t be developed like a normal subdivision because it doesn’t have a public roadway.”

The only access road to the property is a private road through the owner’s existing apartment complex, Peterson said.

Access to the development would be from Lake Front Drive, Peterson said.

Traffic wouldn’t be a problem because the development would have 91 fewer units than the original proposal, for which a traffic study was completed, according to Peterson. The road would stay at the same level of service, he said.

The owner would lease the units, according to Peterson.

MAINTENANCE ISSUES

The maintenance of area developments also raised concerns among commissioners Wednesday.

Developments at the Renaissance Center — located northwest of the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Alabama 181 — share a common detention pond that needs to be cleaned out, Planning Chairman Jeff Carrico said.

The pond has had erosion problems that might be linked to the little vegetation growth with the shortage of rain, Councilwoman Cathy Barnette, who holds a seat on the commission, said.

Silk fencing and grass were thought to be temporary solutions, Barnette said, of suggestions given at an August Planning Commission meeting.

“The main problem is to find out who is responsible for the pond,” planning Director Bill Eady said.

At another development, Commercial Park Highway 64, on Capital Drive, the detention pond is overgrown, according to Jason Estes, a developer with Engineering Development Services.

However, he added, “There is no evidence of flooding in the subdivision.”

The responsibility of the pond’s maintenance is in question because there is no formal operating entity, such as a property owners association, to handle it, according to Commissioner Larry Chason.

Estes questioned who would be responsible for maintenance, or portions of it, as establishments already exist in the development.

Chason added that the city owns property that also drains to the detention pond.