Baldwin County’s planning commission, tasked with regulating new developments in one of the state’s fastest growing counties, tabled consideration of a 377-lot subdivision Thursday to find a way forward on a development that is deeply unpopular with nearby residents.
“There are a lot of developers trying to make money in this county,” Ricky Strickland, a resident of the area, said. “Maybe we need a DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] in Baldwin County.”
DOGE, the newly created agency in the Trump administration, has been eliminating what it says is waste within the federal government, including jobs and leases on buildings.
Cambridge Subdivision is a planned 377-lot development off County Road 55 and County Road 54 in between Silverhill and Robertsdale in Baldwin County. Developers had initially proposed building 445 lots on the property, which is around 152 acres, last fall; but the Baldwin County Commission voted to deny that application in November, after residents expressed their concerns about the density of the development.
This new proposal is an attempt to respond to the concerns raised the first time Cambridge was considered, said Dwayne Smith of Anchor Engineering in Mobile.
Smith, the engineer of record on the development, said the developers varied the lot sizes, leaving the smaller lots at the south end and adding larger lots on the north end, closer to the agricultural land, to match the existing land use pattern.
But the new proposal was still unpopular with neighboring residents, who expressed concerns about how the subdivision would impact drainage, traffic and schools in the area.
Residents’ issues with Cambridge are part of a larger concern about growth in Baldwin County, the second-fastest growing county in Alabama and home to the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley Metropolitan Statistical Area, the tenth-fastest growing metro area in the United States.
Neighboring resident Terry Whiteside said there are six other subdivisions under development within a five-mile radius of Cambridge.
Greg Warren, who said he worked for Baldwin County Public Schools and lives in the area, warned that the brand-new Silverhill Elementary School will be at capacity within a few years if growth is not slowed.
The new building, which opened last month, currently enrolls less than 500 students but has capacity to hold around 1,200, according to WPMI.
“Until the infrastructure is set, I don’t know how you can approve any more subdivisions,” Cathy Elgie, a nearby resident of the area, said. “This might be a good idea in 10 to 15 years, when we have more four-lane roads.”
Rather than deny the proposal altogether, Planning Commissioner Michael Mullek proposed a compromise: the commission could table the application and allow the developer time to revise the development application to scale up the width of the lots. That would lessen the density without dramatically reducing the number of homes on the property.
In doing so, Mullek said, the commission would be more amenable to approving the development.
Cambridge Subdivision will be reconsidered by the planning commission at their monthly meeting in April. As a planned residential development (PRD) application, the Baldwin County Commission will have final say on whether the development is approved.
The listed owners of the property on which Cambridge Subdivision would be built are Bill Bengston, Jr. and Steven Childress.
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