The Prattville Planning Commission on Oct. 16 approved the preliminary plat for Heritage Galleria Plat 1, a proposed 10‑lot subdivision totaling 18.34 acres at the corner of McQueen Smith Road and U.S. Highway 82, after attaching a condition that all structures face the major roads and that screening will be provided for service areas.

Planner Brie told the commission the proposal would subdivide the property into 10 lots, with the smallest lot at about 0.84 acre and the largest about 3.01 acres, and noted the revised plat had not yet been reviewed by all city departments. Staff raised concerns that several lots would create "double‑frontage" or reverse‑frontage conditions, which the subdivision regulations restrict to avoid exposing residential development to major arterials.

John Stanley, representing the property owners (the Sanford family and the Murphy Trust), said the developer planned commercial uses including a restaurant and that restrictive covenants would require landscaping, screening and limit certain uses. "You're gonna see store frontage," he said when asked whether elevations would face Highway 82, and offered to provide written, notarized assurances as part of the record.

Planning staff and several commissioners said a notarized assurance would help mitigate the double‑frontage concerns. Commissioner (speaker 8) moved to amend the approval so it would be contingent on receiving a notarized letter from the applicant stating that "all structures will face Highway 82 and McQueen Smith," a condition the applicant agreed to provide. The amendment passed by voice vote, and the commission subsequently approved the preliminary plat as amended.

The commission and staff said the notarized letter will be attached to plat records and recorded as a plat note so the orientation requirement runs with the land. Staff also noted other mitigation alternatives—shared access agreements, landscaping strips or walls—could be used on future plats and site plans.

Next steps for the project include the applicant providing the notarized letter and returning the final plat for administrative processing and recording; additional permits or site‑plan reviews will follow separate approval processes if construction is proposed.