City of Jacksonville slowing growth to focus on infrastructure

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. (WBRC) – Jacksonville city leaders are considering taking a year-long pause on building multi-family housing.

Jacksonville Public Information Officer Ben Nunnally says the sudden growth of the city is causing officials to introduce the idea of a one-year moratorium on multi-family dwellings to accommodate such growth.

“And that can mean a few different things, but in this instance we’re talking about apartments specifically, and what we’re really trying to do is avoid having too many large scale apartment complexes developing at the same time,” said Nunnally.

With this newfound growth, city leaders want to take this time to tighten up their infrastructure and other issues that could potentially arise.

“We’ll be able to take time and look at the impact that these new developments could have so, whether or not there’s going to be a strain on the infrastructure, utilities. If there’s going to be an issue with traffic or whatever it may be, those are all the things we’d like to have answers to before projects start,” said Nunnally.

While meeting the interests of the people who want to invest in Jacksonville, Nunnally says the best way to do that is by slowing the pace.

“We don’t want to risk any kind of either major inconvenience or any serious issues that could come from overdoing our growth and outpacing what we can really realistically handle as a small town that’s kind of turning into a big one,” said Nunnally.

Nunnally says the city council will vote Monday on this year long moratorium, which would give the city some time to decide when to continue growing.

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