Developers and counsel press St. Clair County Commission for clearer rules and transition protections in proposed subdivision regulations

St. Clair County commissioners spent much of their work session on a proposed set of subdivision regulations that would, as drafted, set a 15,000‑square‑foot minimum lot size in many unincorporated areas. Developers and land‑use counsel told the commission the change could make currently planned projects financially unworkable.

Developer Rhett Leman, land‑development chair for the Greater Birmingham Association of Homebuilders, said his Lake Mont Village project uses 6,000‑square‑foot lots and provides sidewalks, parks and underground utilities that buyers want. He told the commission that shifting to 15,000‑square‑foot minimums would force him to drop amenities and raise costs: "We're not opposed to subdivision regulations... it's gone from two pages to 67 pages," Leman said, and asked for clearer variance pathways and protections for multi‑phase projects already engineered.

Why it matters: The draft regulations affect how and where housing can be built across unincorporated St. Clair County. County leaders said they are balancing the desire of citizens for protections against uncontrolled development with developers' concerns about vested investments, sewer and traffic impacts, and the county's authority under state enabling law.

Legal concerns and variances

Martin Evans, general counsel for the Birmingham Homebuilders Association, told the commission the variance rules in the draft are modeled on a high "unnecessary hardship" standard used in zoning and could make relief rare and unpredictable. "The variance section... requires the applicant to prove that he would suffer an unnecessary hardship if he had to literally comply with the text of the ordinance," Evans said, warning that an ad‑hoc variance system risks long appeals and inconsistent results.

Evans also highlighted potential federal legal intersections — the Fifth Amendment takings doctrine and the Fair Housing Act — saying regulations that sharply raise lot costs could disproportionately affect affordability and create legal exposure. He urged objective, spelled‑out variance standards and transition language for in‑progress, multi‑phase developments.

Infrastructure and permitting concerns

Developers and staff walked commissioners through technical limits that drove parts of the draft. Several projects rely on on‑site sewer systems permitted through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and reviewed by the Alabama Public Service Commission; those permitting paths, developers said, make sudden density changes costly or impossible. Commissioners and county engineer Dan Daly noted that traffic impacts, turn lanes and stormwater controls are legitimate county interests that the regulations are designed to address.

Board response and next steps

Commissioners discussed procedural options to move the work forward without unintended damage to existing projects: tabling the draft to a date certain, adopting provisions subject to legal review, or carving narrow grandfathering rules for projects with signed plats or an approved preliminary plan. Several commissioners said they will not support lowering the proposed standards without clear technical justification but emphasized the need to protect developers who have spent large sums under prior rules.

No formal action was taken at the work session. The commission directed staff to place the draft and the outstanding legal questions on the agenda for the next formal meeting; commissioners repeatedly called for county attorney review before any ordinance publication or final vote.