In a city where affordable housing has emerged as a top policy concern, a proposed senior housing development in one of the higher income areas of Mobile is splitting council members about a sensitive rezoning case.
The focus is on 3300 Knollwood Drive in west Mobile, where a proposal is on the table for a 60-unit townhouse complex for people ages 55 and over. But residents, since February, have blasted the project as a low-income development that is not right for the surrounding communities and could depress property values.
The heated nature of the dispute has led the attorney who represents the developer in the case to claim the council could be discriminating against people based on their age, race, and color if they vote down the rezoning request.
“My belief is anywhere in the City of Mobile that we can have affordable, attainable and market rate homes, we should work together to display that,” said Councilman Cory Penn, who supported waiting an extra two weeks before deciding on the rezoning. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
Rezoning or development
For now, the council is faced with a touchy issue about whether to up-zone residential property from single-family housing to zoning that would allow for a multi-family housing development.
The council, on Tuesday, voted 5-2 to give an additional two weeks before deciding the rezoning’s fate. Voting “No” were Councilmen Ben Reynolds and Josh Woods – both who represent the areas in and around Knollwood Road – who said they felt the rezoning should be denied. They have also participated in community meetings where residents have shown up and expressed widespread opposition.
Woods and Reynolds said they were focused on the issue as a zoning matter, and not as a specific development project. Other council members, including Penn, said they were concerned over the comments from residents during last week’s council meeting that seemed to focus more on the impact of a proposed townhouse complex.
“To allow for anything other than single-family residential (development) is what they are against,” Woods said. “When it’s rezoned, it’s rezoned forever.”
Reynolds said he didn’t believe an additional two weeks would lead to a resolution. He said that residents remain adamantly opposed, and that opposition toward the rezoning request has occurred for at least 90 days.
“Hopefully we’ll have the votes to kill it in two weeks,” he said.
During last week’s council meeting, multiple residents who live near the Knollwood Road site said they feared for their housing values if a townhouse development happens. They said they were worried about what they felt was low-income, government subsidized housing that would go into the area.
Other concerns about the project included increased traffic and stormwater runoff.
“There is no way that project should be set in the middle of these subdivisions,” said John Carlisle, who lives in the nearby Leesburg subdivision. He said housing costs within the area range from $325,000 to $500,000, and that a townhouse complex will “keep other people from trying to purchase our homes.”
Councilman William Carroll questioned why people were opposed, questioning whether a nicely developed senior housing complex is not going to depress surrounding property values.
“To be honest, in my mind, you only want a certain income level to be in this neighborhood,” Carroll said.
Attorneys respond
The comments from last week’s meeting resulted in dueling letters from two attorneys -- one who represents the council and the other from Casey Pipes, who represents GK Land Holdings LLC, the developers.
Pipes, in his letter, said he felt the people who spoke in opposition to the project opposed the “type, race, or class of tenant they thought would be attracted to the development.”
He also wrote that developing the property as a single-family residential development under the current zoning classification would result in more density, more traffic and more stormwater runoff than a senior townhouse facility.
“There is a demonstrated and well-documented need for more affordable housing, and in particular more affordable senior housing, in the City of Mobile,” Pipes wrote to the council’s attorney, Paul Carbo.
Pipes noted that the city’s applications for Community Development Block grants demonstrate how Mobile has a goal of “removing the impediments, including a lack of supply” when it comes to increasing affordable housing options.
“Denying the pending rezoning request is doing the opposite, and it demonstrates quite clearly that the city is actively involved in hurting, rather than helping, the supply of affordable housing,” Pipes said in the letter.
He then said that denying the rezoning request was akin to discrimination.
Reynolds, on Tuesday, said the letter was “ridiculous.”
In response, Carbo wrote Monday that Pipes’ implication that the council does not support affordable housing “shows a genuine lack of knowledge concerning the subject.”
“Further, to imply a vote, a vote that has not even been taken, is somehow tinged with discrimination appears to be an act of desperation on the part of your client,” Carbo wrote. He said the council makes a determination on rezoning based on a number of factors but does not include discrimination whether it’s based on race, gender, nationality or disability.
Carbo said the concerns expressed by council members during last week’s hearing “had nothing to do with the type of project contemplated.” He said there were no guarantees that subsidized housing was going to be built for residents over age 55. Carbo also said a rezoning would be valid for any potential developer, not just the proposed developer.
“You and your client can rest assured that whatever decision is reached by the council, it will be one that is made after careful deliberation and that the decision made will be one that the council believes is in the best interest of the City of Mobile, and not just in the best interest of your client,” Carbo wrote.
Most Popular Stories by John Sharp
- George McMillan, who nearly beat Wallace and revitalized Birmingham with music, dies at 81
- Hundreds join Mobile ‘No Kings’ protest: What demonstrators want
- Woman, 70s, shot during robbery attempt in parking lot of Mobile Publix
- Republican Alabama congressman faces public protest, GOP rally as he speaks at private event
- Mobile cruise terminal to welcome two different cruise lines in 2026
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
