By Scott Turner
“This story first appeared in the Lede, a digital news publication delivered to our subscribers every morning. Go here to subscribe.”
First elected in 2016, Huntsville City Councilman Devyn Keith is in his second term as the District 1 representative.
Keith represents an area that covers much of northern Huntsville including Alabama A&M University and stretching into the downtown area.
He recently participated in a question-and-answer session with The Lede discussing issues concerning his district and the city.
The redevelopment around former J.O. Johnson High School including Johnson Legacy Center and Legacy Park is among the projects in District 1. What other projects have been completed or are ongoing you feel residents should be aware of?
When we talk about projects, we really have been very aggressive over the past four years to make sure public-private partnerships have been an intentional step that we’ve taken. So much so that we’ve bought the most commercial property that’s ever been purchased in Northwest Huntsville history, from Lantana to Max Luther and inlet locations as well as we try to infill.
Many people know we’re doing a redevelopment at Max Luther, which will be the new administrative building for Huntsville City Schools. We’ll also have a supportive location as well for TARCOG, Bank Independent and another commercial user. We started this project just working our way up the Parkway.
Obviously, Lantana used to be a commercial. We bought that land back to turn it into a passive park to increase the green space, as well as beautification being a big thing for us.
We supported redevelopment locations such as the work that Jim Bassett has done at All Brothers, the corner at Oakwood, obviously the (Madison County) Service Center. We have continued to work our way up the Parkway.
You’ll see redevelopment at the corner of Oakwood again in that plaza. The big thing was making sure we found a redevelopment opportunity in Northwest Huntsville off the Parkway for a future grocer. It’s at the forefront for our residents to increase the grocery stories and access to them. We’re working diligently. Hopefully, we’ll have something in the announcements in the coming months about the work that we’re doing to make sure a new grocer, one that everybody loves and is very familiar with in Huntsville, comes to the market.o you have a wish list for projects you would like to see started in your district?
The biggest thing I would love to see in the district is continued residential redevelopment. People have to understand that in order to increase the commerce, as the saying goes, retail follows rooftops. Individuals want to see new houses, new families and new uses in the area.
As much as we saw at one point, the redevelopment that was a PUD (Planned Urban Development) development for a place like Providence, we’re trying to do those things when it comes to Jaguar Hills, Spragins and over the past two and a half years because of public-private partnerships with redevelopments like Stanley and home builders like Davidson, we’re about to put almost 400 units in Northwest Huntsville in a manner of two years. Before that, there had not been a new residential development in almost 12 years.
What do you feel like are the biggest issues facing your district?
Our biggest issue is making sure we do redevelopment right, doing them in places that have compounding effects. It doesn’t always mean we have to rebuild new neighborhoods, but we can revitalize places like Cherry Heights, which to me is a golden forefront to affordable housing.
We see the redevelopment of Cherry Heights, where homes were at one point going for $46,000. Now people are staying in their homes and they’ve seen double, almost three times the amount of equity put into their homes, their appraisals are going up and a house sold over there for $146,000. … We have to do redevelopment in a way that does not push many of our constituents out. We also want to make sure the people who call it home have equity and investment.
How about the city as a whole? What do you feel city government should be focused on?
The City of Huntsville should take all of its abilities and put it toward having individuals in the community reap the benefits of the success of the city as a whole. The reason we’re No. 1 is not just because of four or five projects, or four or five big companies. It is because of all of Huntsville. The totality of Huntsville has made Huntsville No. 1, not two or three things we put together.
What are your thoughts about the growth of Huntsville? What do you feel are the biggest challenges?
The biggest thing we have to address is infrastructure, making sure our road network and especially our public works isn’t thinned out. We have to reinvest in them. We have moving trucks with more houses being built, more bodies in those houses, more things being thrown out. We don’t want to get behind on infrastructure.
We have to increase the investment to make sure our roads are built at the highest quality grades so that they will last the longest, and also the ability to invest in our public infrastructure and those who work in our public infrastructure, so that we have a thriving metropolis.
We want people to get in and out of Huntsville with ease, and people who live in Huntsville to reap the benefits of the infrastructure that is here.
I think some of the challenges that go along with it that have not been addressed and people don’t talk about much are things like homelessness. We have to address that.
Not everybody who moves here is moving into a home. We have to be very intentional that we support the people who are doing the work. We need to make sure we look internal as the City of Huntsville making sure we address this issue as seriously as we do an amphitheater, as seriously as we do an expansion or an annexation.
Huntsville is not only going to be home to those who are moving here for work, but those who believe that moving here will give them a second chance at life.
