FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A proposed parking lot that would pave part of an open space and threaten a line of oak trees on the Faulkner State Community College campus will be reconsidered at the Dec. 1 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“I request that the city reconsider the planned parking spaces at School Street and Morphy Avenue,” wrote Tom Ellis in an Oct. 27 letter to the commission. “Not only would this construction seriously affect the oaks we have planted, it also would be one more loss of green space on this historic campus.”

A subsequent letter to the planning department from Walcott, Adam, Verneuille, the architectural firm that is designing the new Allied Health and Science facility on campus, requested guidance from the city on how to proceed with parking plans for the project.

“In our meeting last week, (Public Works Director) Jennifer Fidler pointed out that over 100 new parking spaces have been put into service this year downtown,” wrote Mac Walcott, president of the Fairhope architectural firm, in that Nov. 3 letter. “Given the desire to preserve open space and save trees, is it possible that these new spaces could offset the need for additional spaces on the Faulkner campus?”

The commission approved the original plan for the facility on March 3, which included 33 new parking spaces on campus and 29 angled spaces on Bancroft Street.

“(The parking plan) invades the green space, which always gets a lot of informal use here,” said Bobby Green, owner of Green Nurseries in Fairhope. “You take places like this for granted and miss them when they disappear. Green space disappears around the edges. It gets nibbled first around the perimeter, and then it’s gone.”

The current plans for the new facility show a gross floor area of approximately 45,000 square feet, according to a recent planning department memo.

“Various site conditions, including existing trees, drainage structures and existing large areas of active/open space have created problems for the site designers,” the memo states. “After the site plan was approved in March, the Public Works Department created approximately 100 new parking spaces in the Fairhope downtown area. The Hampton Inn parking deck will provide approximately 90 new public parking spaces.”

Planning Department Director Gregg Mims said Friday his department has been doing a study of traffic in the area around the campus.

“I think it will be a real eye-opener,” he said. “At any given time, there’s always about 30 vacant parking spaces available around the campus.”

That was the case Friday morning as students walked from classrooms to their cars. At least 30 places were vacant on School and Bancroft streets that day.

“These (parking) spaces would be located exactly where, over the past eight years, the Tree Committee, in collaboration with Faulkner State Community College, the Wisteria Garden Club, and various donors, have planted a line of oaks,” wrote Ellis in his Oct. 27 letter to the commission. “They are of diverse species, planted as additions to the Marietta Johnson Tree Trail and to provide shade for the existing parking spaces on School Street. They are all in the Red Oak group and would be quite sensitive to root disturbance.”

One student walked past the line of oaks that might be removed or impacted by the proposed parking project. To get to her car, she passed a post oak, willow oak, northern red oak and swamp chestnut oak.

”You mean these trees?” asked Kylie Forrester, 25, a pharmacy student, looking back at the trees she had just walked past on the sidewalk. “We might lose these trees? I disagree with the plan. I don’t mind walking. I would rather have the campus remain the way it is.”

The Fairhope Planning and Zoning Commission meets at 5 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1, in council chambers at the Civic Center.