City considering another overpass on Alabama 20

Aug. 7—A proposed interchange and overpass on Alabama 20, 1 mile west of the one being built at Bibb-Garrett Road, appears to have majority support from the Decatur City Council, but a vote on a resolution to spend almost $1 million on design work was tabled last week in the hopes of obtaining grant money to offset some of the cost.

The council also last week approved pushing the completion date of the Bibb-Garrett overpass to next year. Originally scheduled to be finished July 8, it is now projected to be completed March 23. The change was made due to a six-month delay in the delivery of sanitary sewer pipe that is being relocated for the project.

The newly proposed diamond interchange would be at Calvary Assembly of God. There is no road for the interchange to connect to north of Alabama 20, which runs east to west in that area, and the only road to the south is Calvary Boulevard, a driveway for the church. The closest road to the north is the east-west Airport Road, a mile north of Calvary.

The church occupies a portion of the 175 acres it owns south of the highway, all of which is outside city limits, and is interested in selling 125 acres of its land for development. The land north of the proposed interchange is in city limits.

A frontage road extending west from the Bibb-Garrett overpass is probably not feasible on the south side of Alabama 20, City Engineer Carl Prewitt said, because Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and the Tennessee Valley Authority own land that borders Alabama 20 to the south, immediately east of the Calvary property and west of the Bibb-Garrett overpass.

"I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it won't be easy," Prewitt said. A frontage road would also require the city to acquire a mile-long strip of expensive land from property owners, he said.

Prewitt said the newly proposed interchange would likely tie into the 800-foot Calvary Boulevard spur to the south, but there is nothing for it to connect to north of Alabama 20.

He said the cost of the interchange would be "in the range of" the cost of constructing the $18 million Bibb-Garrett overpass. A federal grant is covering $14.2 million of that cost, and city officials plan to apply for a similar construction grant for the Calvary interchange once the design work is complete.

Councilman Carlton McMasters on Monday moved to table a vote to spend $937,815 for design work and the motion passed unanimously. Councilmen Kyle Pike and Billy Jackson were absent.

"I think this is the right call right now, simply because there could be grants out there," McMasters said. "I appreciate us being proactive in that area, but we've got a lot of things we could spend a million dollars on, on this side of the river, instead of building an overpass until we get the other one finished."

Development potential

While Council President Jacob Ladner joined in the vote to table consideration of the expenditure for a few months as grant options are explored, he expressed concern that delays could jeopardize development possibilities south of Alabama 20.

"I do think this is a priority for the simple reason that, especially the property on the south side of 20 there, if we did have a development — especially residential — it's going to be tough in that area without some type of access like this," he said.

"We want that property to develop. I would still like to see some urgency on this project."

Mayor Tab Bowling said developers have approached the city expressing interest in land owned by Calvary Assembly east of the church building and south of Alabama 20. The mayor is hopeful that an interchange would encourage commercial or residential development on the acreage and that the land would be annexed into Decatur.

"We see it as a lure to annexation to the property to the east of Calvary, and Calvary may very well decide to come in, too. But it's more about the property to the east of them," Bowling said.

He said the design work for the proposed interchange must be completed before the city can apply for a federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant for construction costs.

Calvary property

Calvary pastor George Sawyer on Friday said the church has been approached by several prospective developers, and improved Alabama 20 access is one of their main concerns. The church would like to see a mixed-use development with residential and commercial, and he said developers are especially interested in residential there.

"The concept we'd love to see is live-work-play, an urban center somewhat like you see at Providence," he said Friday, referring to Village of Providence in Huntsville.

That's not feasible, he said, with the current access. There's no traffic signal at the intersection of Calvary Boulevard and Alabama 20, so turning left toward Decatur is hazardous. The wisdom and safety of a traffic signal is questionable, he said, because it would disrupt the already heavy traffic on Alabama 20.

He said he worries about the safety of his congregation when they leave church after Sunday service, and he has church staff leaving at 4 p.m. instead of 5 on weekdays so they avoid the lengthy wait and dangers involved in the left turn toward Decatur.

Those concerns would multiply with a large residential development on the south side of Alabama 20, and he said developers interested in the Calvary land know it. Sawyer noted that the same issue would limit the development potential of land north of Alabama 20. Mitchell-Frazier Farms Limited owns 634 acres north of Alabama 20 across from the Calvary land. It also owns 537 acres south of Alabama 20 where the city is building the Bibb-Garrett overpass.

While sympathetic with council members' financial concerns, Sawyer suspects an interchange providing access to Calvary property would have to exist, or at least be designed and have a construction timeline, before a developer would make a commitment.

"I've heard that statement (from developers): 'Well, when is that interchange going to be there? If there's going to be one, when?' When you can't answer that, when the city can't answer that, you give them pause," Sawyer said. "I think that interchange is going to have to be done sooner or later. The sooner you start it, the sooner you derive the benefit from it.

"From conversations I've had, the developers want as many variables as possible to be eliminated before they invest a lot of money."

One of those variables, Sawyer said, is the footprint of an eventual interchange. Developers need to know how much land and highway frontage they will lose to the interchange before they will commit.

He also said that even if residential development is possible on the south side without an interchange, any residents would likely work in Madison County and pay sales taxes there because of the difficulty in leaving the subdivision and going west.

"If you're going to go to Huntsville, you just take a right turn and go. But if you want to come back into Decatur to shop and eat or work, you have to take a left going west out of there," he said.

Opposition

Jackson opposes the project.

"Calvary's not in the city limits. I don't know why citizens of Decatur should pay for something that's not in our city limits and not going to be of direct benefit to them," he said. "Our roads are really bad right now. We have flooding when we have heavy rains in our city. We have overgrown right of ways that are prevalent throughout our city."

Jackson is concerned at the idea that the city would gamble millions of dollars to encourage development that may not happen rather than focusing on the needs of Decatur south of the river.

"I would much rather address the issues that we have at hand rather than speculating on something that may never come to fruition," he said. "We have so many basic needs that we're putting to the side. Why would we build an overpass that doesn't even connect to any city roads?"

Prewitt said it would take about 30 months between when design efforts begin and completion of construction of an interchange at Calvary. That time lag has Ladner concerned, especially if a residential developer approaches the city, because "they can build houses a lot faster than an overpass."

While McMasters is reticent about spending almost $1 million to design a Calvary interchange, he views that and the overpass that's under construction as worthwhile projects.

"We know that it's going to take one developer doing one project and we're going to have an explosion of growth north of the river," he said. "We may be playing catch-up on some stuff. It's going to require another firehouse. It's going to require more infrastructure. It will require another access point farther to the west (of the Bibb-Garrett overpass). All those are very real issues. It's just a matter of time and money."

'No vision'

Ladner said he's heard critics complaining that the Bibb-Garrett overpass is a "bridge to nowhere," because there is no commercial or residential development on either side of the Alabama 20 corridor, a complaint that would also apply to a Calvary interchange.

"My response to the 'bridge to nowhere' is that if you think that bridge is to nowhere, you have no vision. It's very obvious that being at the intersection essentially of two interstates (Interstates 65 and 565), that that whole corridor is going to be developed one day," he said. "Whether it's developed in a year or in 10 or 15 years, it's the right decision to make sure that access is there, from both a safety perspective but also a development perspective. It's better to be proactive on those projects."

In 2002, Decatur Utilities spent $2.4 million to lay sewer lines along Alabama 20. Then as now, officials believed development of the corridor was imminent. Various development proposals have since fallen through.

"The difference now is the (Bibb-Garrett) overpass will provide access to that property and just the economy of north Alabama and what's been happening over the last five years or so," Ladner said. "With every metric, north Alabama's exploding. That area I think is really ripe for development. It's better to be proactive than to wait for something to come."

Decatur-annexed land north of the river is in Pike's District 2. He said he also would have voted to table spending money on the design work until grant possibilities are explored, but he agreed that an interchange west of the one being built is important.

"It's something we don't need to delay, but if there are grants available to cover some of the design costs that would be a big win," he said. "We need to continue to look at access on the Calvary side. If there were development, we certainly want to be ready to support that."

Pike, like Sawyer and Ladner, said the interchange should be built before a developer makes a specific proposal for the land.

"We know the time frame it takes to build those sorts of overpasses after dealing with the one that's being built now. We'd want to be ahead of any large development out there," he said. "There's interest in that land, and I think when the current overpass is done there's going to be more interest with that location being right along two interstates between Decatur and Huntsville. It's a huge opportunity."

Sawyer said an interchange at Calvary is an important piece of the puzzle.

"It could be a catalyst for the city. As much attention as I've had from developers, it's like they're waiting for somebody to take the first step. I think when that happens, there's going to be others that say, 'OK, if we're going to get in on this area, we'd better go ahead and make a decision.' I think an interchange expedites the process."

— eric@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2435. Twitter @DD_Fleischauer.