During his monthly report to the Alexander City Council, Planning Commission Chairman Michael Huck gave a summary of a report written by Metroplan. The Planning Studies Report is the first step in the city’s plan to develop a Master Plan, which will guide the city in future development.
After Huck completed his report Mayor Paul Mitchell spoke to council members about a plan to rename the most heavily traveled streets in the city to N. Main Street and S. Main Street. Mitchell says having multiple street names along the same route is not a good look for the city.
The Planning Studies Report provides information concerning the type of utilities, school districts, available amenities for residents, and employment opportunities in the city. The type of future development still available is also covered. The report also contains statistics detailing historical growth patterns by both population and annexation. Huck noted the report is a preliminary draft.
Because most of Alexander is in Saline County the report compares the city to the county in several categories. Huck told council members the two categories worth noting are ethnic make up and household size. All statistics in the report are based on five-years ending in 2019.
When it comes to ethnic make up Alexander is more ethnically diverse than Saline County. Alexander is 44% white to Saline County’s 87%, Alexander is 28% Hispanic to Saline County’s 5%, Alexander is 21% Black to Saline County’s 7%, Alexander is 2% Asian to Saline’s 1%, and Alexander is rated as having 5% in the category of Other. Saline County did nit have a rating for Other. As a side note the report does compare Alexander’s Hispanic population of 28% to Pulaski County’s 6%.
In the category of Household Size Alexander outdoes Saline County in only one of the ratings. The two are nearly even in the 1-person and 3-person categories. However, where Saline County has 37% 2-person households compared to Alexander’s 25%, Alexander in the category of 4 or more-person households has 32% compared to Saline County’s 21%.
Huck also noted the two recommendations made by Metroplan made in the report. Traffic counts and building permits, Huck said, are the type of information Metroplan needs to help Alexander apply for various grants and other programs that may be used to help the city.
The first recommendation is to perform traffic counts annually. Along with that is to add E. Azalea Dr. as part of the traffic count regimen in order to determine how much of Alexander’s traffic is coming from Shannon Hills.
The second recommendation is to maintain a log of building permits, which Metroplan can use to provide growth projections. Not only can the information determine what type of development is occurring but where.
After giving his report Mayor Paul Mitchell took over. Mitchell wanted permission from the council to have the Planning Commission begin researching how to change the names of some of the city’s streets.
“This is something that I’ve been wanting to do (for some time),” Mitchell said. “The thing I’ve been wanting (to do) is to change Hwy 111 to South and North Main Street.”
“This has been a thing I’ve been working on a long time, which will connect what we call North Alexander here to South Alexander; as we call it.” he said.
The renaming will actually extend beyond Hwy 111. Under the mayor’s proposal N. Main St. will begin at Hwy 5, which is currently the intersection of Hwy 5 and N. Alexander Road. N. Main St. will travel south following Hwy 111 and Alexander Rd. ending at 3rd Street.
S. Main St. will begin at what is now the intersection of 3rd St. and Alexander Rd. and will follow Hwy 111. Where Hwy 111 ends is also S. Alexander Road. S. Main St. will continue to follow S. Alexander Rd. and end at the city limit.
Mitchell noted this change will put city hall on N. Main St. and the main fire station on S. Main. He also expects having a “Main St.” running from one end of the city to the other will “tie N. Alexander and S. Alexander together.”
S. Main St. will also travel past the former Alexander Human Development Center, which is now owned by the city. Efforts have been made to find a developer who will turn it into a commercial center. Mitchell expects having Hwy 111 on S. Main St. will make the property more appealing.
This, however, brings up another issue. There is already a Main St. in the original part of town, which is only three blocks long. The name will probably have to be changed to avoid confusion.
Mitchell is aware there will have to be a process and this will affect the residents along the two renamed streets. There will probably have to be at least one public hearing to allow comments from residents. Also, 9-1-1 from both Pulaski and Saline counties will have to be involved in changing everyone’s 9-1-1 addresses to either N. Main or S. Main. And, of course, anyone who uses their house address as their mailing address will have to go through the process of changing those on any important monthly mail they receive.
For now the first step is to determine if there are any state requirements to follow and what requirements must be met to satisfy the 9-1-1 departments in Pulaski and Saline counties.
Public hearing for food truck announced
During his report to council members Planning Commission Chairman Michael Huck told council members a public hearing has been scheduled for a Conditional Use Permit, which will allow a food trailer to operate on a residential lot at 15404 S. Alexander Road. The hearing is set for Tuesday, May 4 at 6:30 PM in the courtroom at city hall. The property is at the corner of Alton Dr. and S. Alexander Road.
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