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By EMILY SPARACINO | Staff Writer

PELHAM – The Shelby County Planning Commission on Monday, Oct. 4 approved a request to resubdivide property Church of the Highlands owns on Cahaba Valley Road.

The property is located in north Shelby County, about a mile and a half northeast of U.S. 280 and south of Palmer Cove and Retreat at Greystone.

The request came from Derek Meadows with Gonzalez-Strength and Associates Inc., on behalf of the property owners of the parcels, Church of the Highlands and SCP Stone LLC, for the Planning Commission to approve a final plat combining part of the church’s Greystone campus and part of the property on which SiteOne Landscaping is located into one lot containing 51.60 acres.

“There is a little bit of history to the division of this property,” Principal Planner Kristine Goddard said. “It started as a three-lot subdivision back in the early ’80s. It was resubdivided for the creation of Lee Branch Corporate Park, and then Church of the Highlands Greystone campus purchased the property, and as late as last year, resurveyed it into three individual parcels.”

The applicants proposed subdividing the 25.9-acre Lot 2A of Bigler’s Resurvey and Acreage Resurvey of part of Lot 2 and Lot 3 into two lots.

The front portion, roughly 11 acres, is where SiteOne Landscaping is located and will retain frontage on Cahaba Valley Road.

The remaining 14.5 acres, located in the rear portion of the property, will be conveyed to Church of the Highlands, which will incorporate the parcel into Lot 11A of the Church of the Highlands Addition to Baker Lee Branch and the overall Highlands Greystone campus.

“There are no plans to expand the church at this time or add additional facilities to the existing campus,” according to the Department of Development Services report. “Any improvements to the Church of the Highlands campus will require a site plan submittal, review and approval prior to construction activities.”

Goddard said she received additional comments for the case related to the property.

“Backing up to this property is the Greystone community, and when the development was going through the scenic corridor overlay for 119 and adjusting zoning in the area, the Greystone residents came to the Planning Commission, and they requested at that time an additional buffering,” Goddard said. “There is some ridgeline that is located along the rear of what will be Lot 11B, and they were hoping to have additional setback.”

After hearing their comments, Goddard said she reached out to the property owners’ engineer and to the property owners, who indicated they would be willing to include on their survey an additional setback area, or undisturbed area, on the plat itself.

“The church has no plans to develop it at this time, but should they choose to do so in the future or should they choose to sell the property, that would ensure a level of ridge protection to the Greystone community moving forward,” Goddard said.

Meadows said the property owners have agreed to having a 50-foot buffer from the property line.

Church of the Highlands Project Management Director Bruce Adams said the property donated to the church is about 12 acres.

“We have wetlands, we have a stream and we also have terrain. It’s our intention not to get into that terrain,” Adams said. “Church of the Highlands has no intention of coming in and clearing and getting on the hillside.”

In other business, the Planning Commission:

• Approved a request from Marty Byrom with Byrom Building Corp., on behalf of property owners Jeff and Ann Majcher, for approval of reducing the required front yard setback from 100 feet to 75 feet, for a 25-foot setback variance, for the construction of a single-family home in the Shoal Creek neighborhood.
• Approved a request from Jeff Hunt with Diamond Towers V LLC, on behalf of property owner Shelby Investments LLC, for approval of a final plat to resubdivide Lot 1A of Grey Hill, containing 1.84 acres, located off Shelby County 13 in the Helena area.
• Approved a request from Johnny L. Riddlesperger, on behalf of property owner Buchanan Woodlands LLC, for the termination of the previously approved Iron Wood Lakes Master Plan to develop nearly 125 acres into a 15-lot residential subdivision in the Shelby area.