NORTHPORT, Ala (WIAT) – A $350 million development in Northport remains a concern for residents who have now called on legal representation and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Mobile District for help.
In February, the City of Northport entered into an agreement with developer University Beach to bring a multi-use development to the city. The project will be located off McFarland Boulevard and consist of condos, a lazy river, 10-acre lagoon and other facilities.
Residents, however, are still concerned about the project’s feasibility.
“All we want is transparency," Northport resident Bart Harper said.
Harper said he and others have asked the city if studies were done prior to entering an agreement. Residents wanted to make sure all due diligence was done.
"We have been wanting to get the impact studies, the environmental studies, the economic studies,” Harper said.
When the city signed off with University Beach LLC to move forward with this project, Harper said the council president at the time, Jeff Hogg, assured residents those studies were done.
Six months later, residents are still waiting for documentation to back up those claims.
“Just so many questions, and so many things that don’t add up,” Harper said. “We want answers.”
To get answers, one resident filed an open records lawsuit against Northport. You can view the lawsuit below:
Boyce Holland, the plaintiff, “requested economic and fiscal impact analysis of University Beach Development on the City of Northport,” according to court documents.
Court records show that Holland first requested those records on March 5. The city said March 26 such information could be found on its website. The city said March 27 information requested was not public record.
Northport City Attorney Ron Davis said University Beach developers did present the council with economic studies.
“We don’t have the underlying documentation for that, but I’m sure he’s provided it to his financial lenders,” Davis said.
Harper has also tried reaching out to developers for records.
“We haven't been able to get any of that from the City of Northport or the developer,” Harper said. “We don’t know if any of these studies have been done.”
“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Davis said. “We’re putting them out there for the people to look at and study and make up their own opinions.”
CBS 42 looked on Northport’s website and didn't find economic or environmental studies regarding the University Beach LLC project.
In terms of environmental studies, USACE looked into the initial development plans after residents expressed concerns. USACE released a public notice pointing out risk factors in the initial development plans that would have impacted 29.93 acres of wetlands and 2,969 linear feet of stream.
New plans were designed that would avoid some of those areas. USACE, however, has not evaluated the second design, according to the public notice. USACE is asking for federal, state and local officials, as well as members of the Northport community, to provide the agency with comments.
Those comments will be considered by USACE to help make a decision on whether or not to issue or modify University Beach LLC with a permit to discharge “fill material into wetlands and unnamed tributaries to Mill Creek associated with the construction of a water park in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama,” according to the USACE public notice.