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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
The new senior living facility will be the first of its kind within Mountain Brook, taking over the space that currently houses Village Dermatology on Cahaba Road. It will include assisted living, memory care and independent living units.
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Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
A Dominion Partners team member details changes made to the initially presented plan July 23.
Allan Worthington has met several times with the Mountain Brook City Council. On Aug. 6, the developer left a special council meeting overjoyed that they had approved his request to rezone a parcel of land from local business district to a planned unit development district.
The council’s 4-1 vote clears the way for Worthington’s Dominion Partners to build a luxury senior living facility on Cahaba Road.
“I'm delighted,” the Dominion CEO said after the meeting. “We didn't have a lot of opposition tonight, as we haven't really had throughout the whole process. A few people had a few issues like storm drainage or traffic, and those are reasonable concerns. I think it turned out just really not that difficult, as far as facing a lot of opposition.”
The topic was first brought up in a council meeting in November 2023, when residents voiced their concerns about the proposed development. Dana Hazen, the city's director of planning, building and sustainability, said she recognized the concern, especially over flooding, but the city has a stormwater ordinance in place to help address the issue.
"It doesn't allow the rate of runoff to increase with development, nor does it allow the volume, so the amount of water that leaves the site can't increase," Hazen said. "This developer has to meet those regulations, period. It's not part of their rezoning request. They're not asking to be treated any different."
Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
A Dominion Partners team member details changes made to the initially presented plan July 23.
As for traffic, traffic studies on the project determined that there would be no negative impact. According to Hazen, the study actually showed that if the current office space at the location was used at full capacity, the impact on traffic would be much worse than what is being proposed for the senior living facility.
The public hearing on Aug. 6 began promptly at 5:30 p.m. and ended just 24 minutes later. Much of that time went to members of the Dominion team, who laid out the changes that were made from the initial presentation. Those changes include:
Altering the road to the northeast garage geometrically, which increases the number of trees that will be saved in the development and along Cahaba Road.
Reducing the number of units in the project by four. That leaves 162 units, with 98 set for independent living, 32 for assisted living and 32 for memory care.
Increasing the stormwater retention capacity by 20%, which decreases the peak discharge from the underground pond.
They also pushed the building farther back from Cahaba Road and lowered it by one story after citizens said the original building plan would ruin the ambiance of Mountain Brook Village.
Developers also added more brick features to the exterior, in order to better match the village architecture.
A resident at the meeting asked what would happen if 60 units are not used. Worthington said that is not likely.
“I’ve been doing this since 2002, starting with the one on Lakeshore Drive that we built,” he said. “We don’t always have the same velocity of lease-up, but we’ve never, never experienced not filling a building. This is honestly the least number of units that we’ve built.”
Responding to another question, the Dominion principal said units will start at about $7,000 per month, with assisted and memory care costing slightly more per-unit than independent living. The independent units include “utilities, meals, transportation … everything,” Worthington said.
Before voting, Gerald Gann reminded the developer of their agreement to use the back entrance to office park as much as possible, in order to minimize disruption to Mountain Brook Village. He also reminded Dominion of concerns about overuse of fire department personnel. City attorney Whit Colvin said an ordinance is being drafted to address overuse of first responders at this facility and similar projects.
Lloyd Shelton cast the lone no vote. He did so, he said, out of concern about the effect of overlapping projects near Mountain Brook Village. That includes the recently approved planned unit development at the former Shades Valley Presbyterian Church property and roundabouts coming to some intersections.
“I would love to see some of the things that have been approved come to fruition so then we eliminate variables,” Shelton said. “Right now, we've got a bunch of variables. Once everything's built and we go live, if it doesn't work as we all hope, then what do we do? The genie's out of the bottle.”
“I'm just a little concerned that there's gonna be a lot of change in a finite amount of space and a finite amount of time," he continued. "I hope it works. Again, it's a good project standing on its own. It's a good quality team. At what point do we cross the proverbial line where we can't come back?”
Now that the PUD is approved, developers will only be allowed to build the facility to the exact specifications in that proposal. Any changes would require them to repeat the approval process from the beginning.
Sarah Owens contributed to this story.
