Sustaining Fairhope's Unique Quality of Life
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The biggest issue Fairhope faces is to effectively plan for the future while preserving the past, to meet the future needs of our residents and businesses without jeopardizing our unique way of life.
Good Growth takes Good Planning
City Council member Quinn understands that Fairhope's growth requires careful planning. She knows that, for the city of Fairhope to remain financially and culturally solid, we must work together, utilizing task forces drawn from the community informed by trained, experienced consultants when needed.
As Council member, Quinn recognized the need for a framework to implement future development decisions, and initiated the Fairhope Comprehensive Plan. Created by the citizens, city staff and elected officials of Fairhope, the Comprehensive Plan is based on four key assumptions:
- The Fairhope Comprehensive Plan is intended as a decision-making and implementation guide for the development of our community. It does not establish required development types for individual lots.
- The Fairhope Comprehensive Plan recognizes market forces and provides practical options to achieve the Plan's goals.
- The Fairhope Comprehensive Plan will be implemented by the Fairhope Zoning and Subdivision regulations. It may be necessary to make changes in those regulations to fully implement this Plan, and other implementation tools may need to be created.
- The Fairhope Comprehensive Plan is designed to achieve quality development reflecting Fairhope's unique community character, while promoting and protecting the quality of life that our citizens enjoy.
- Our plan does recognize that we can not zone outside our city limits. Zoning is what regulates the type and size of developments. with the growth that is occurring, our Comprehensive Plan and Village Concept are at risk. the city does have tools to help with this growth but our elected officials will need to have courage to make some difficult decisions. Annexation utility placement, Police, Fire jurisdictions are all pieces of the puzzle.
Growth in Fairhope is inevitable, and we must be concerned about the nature, quality and scale of this growth. An important question for this planning process is whether future growth can occur in harmony with the scale and character of Fairhope's past.
Quinn believes it can, and has the skill and experience to implement a plan that will result in sustainable development combined with maintaining our quality of life.