Decatur Developments (Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville: homes, neighborhoods, construction)

[Southlander]

Oak Lea's a very nice subdivision. It's of the age where people are buying the houses and remodeling/updating the interiors. Some of the homes in that area, however, are fairly new. Lots of kids there, and neighbors of all ages, elderly to families with babies & toddlers.

AHS vs. DHS - Austin High is the bigger school. It is mostly one story, built in the late 1960s (and remodeled many times), except it has a brand-new two story building just built last year on campus. Band is HUGE at Austin. The student population is bigger than Decatur's.

Cedar Ridge Middle feeds exclusively to Austin. Good teachers. New school, built, oh, 8 or 9 years ago.

Decatur High's campus was built and opened in 1951, and remodeled many times, except for a couple of much newer extensions. Band is NOT huge at Decatur, but they do have an excellent band.

Oak Park Middle fees exclusively to Decatur. Good teachers, also. This middle school (and Brookhaven, whose students split between Decatur and Austin) was built in the 1970s as a "forward-thinking" design of no windows and no walls between classrooms. After a year, teachers were doing everything they could to put walls of any kind between the rooms - lockers, bookcases, stacks of boxes. So the building has been remodeled several times.

Both Decatur and Austin have their share of Merit Scholars, grads with scholarships to state universities as well as MIT, Duke, Vandy, and occasionally Harvard, Cal Tech etc.

Austin has a strong theater program. It also offers R.O.T.C. Decatur students can participate in the Austin R.O.T.C. program but have to travel to Austin's campus.

Austin and Decatur were once at opposite ends of the social scale, so to speak - Austin mostly newcomers, Decatur "old Decatur" families; Austin middle class, Decatur more upper class. But these differences are slowly dissolving. This year the two schools' robotics teams combined. The football/basketball rivalry, however, continues!

I can never remember which side of Spring Avenue that Oak Lea sits on, but if you are west of Spring, you go to Austin; if you are east of Spring, you go to Decatur.

Generally Decaturites are very welcoming to newcomers. You're much more of a novelty here than in Huntsville!

Please PM me if you would like more details.

[sedriskell]

Lol, present population is probably around 56,000.

[Southlander]

According to today's Decatur Daily, Bass Pro is still a "go" for Decatur. The local attorney representing them said he met with Bass Pro officials in January. They are waiting on the national economy and the credit market, but he said he expects they will break ground in 2010.

I would post a link but you have to be a subscriber to read the online version of the Daily.

[SouthernBoy205]

I hope everything else comes with it after a while.

[Bamaboy208]

they both are great schools i went to both( cedar ridge and austin)

[AU HSV]

Could Decatur start catching the development wave? Seems things are picking up, for our neighbors on the Tennessee River.
https://whnt.com/news/decatur/decatu...for-residents/

[HSVAeroEngineer]

Those dilapidated homes on Wilson St as you are heading West towards the Ingalls Harbor are an absolute atrocity.

I cant even understand how a local Government can alllow a place to reach such level of distress and abandonment- Decatur to me, looks like a town from 1958.

Decatur will never be attractive to high profile people like me until they start to show progress- I would hesitate to invest in that town until you see very clear signs of change like you are beginning to see in Athens.

I have an incredible ability to forecast development trends, sometimes decades ahead of the local population and I just don't see it.

[AU HSV]

Rocket plant expansion in Decatur

The rockets that boost Amazon satellites will be built in Decatur at the now-2-million-square-foot ULA plant on the Tennessee River. The engines will be built at Blue Origin’s expanding Huntsville plant and Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space) will supply 38 nosecones to protect the payloads.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) and its partner Beyond Gravity broke ground in Decatur today on an expansion to support one of the biggest rocket deals in history.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/newr...e=1&p=64299373

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by AU HSV

Rocket plant expansion in Decatur

The rockets that boost Amazon satellites will be built in Decatur at the now-2-million-square-foot ULA plant on the Tennessee River. The engines will be built at Blue Origin’s expanding Huntsville plant and Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space) will supply 38 nosecones to protect the payloads.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) and its partner Beyond Gravity broke ground in Decatur today on an expansion to support one of the biggest rocket deals in history.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/newr...e=1&p=64299373

That's great to hear that Decatur's getting some pieces of the larger pie then entire area is enjoying. When I was at NASA I knew several people who lived in Decatur and made the short cummute into Redstone. If a person worked for NASA on the west side of the Arsenal, driving from Decatur was actually easier than if you lived in SE Huntsville or Hampton Cove. It's gotten a bit more difficult the past few years.

Extending 565 into Decatur should be on the upper end of somebody's priority list.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

That's great to hear that Decatur's getting some pieces of the larger pie then entire area is enjoying. When I was at NASA I knew several people who lived in Decatur and made the short cummute into Redstone. If a person worked for NASA on the west side of the Arsenal, driving from Decatur was actually easier than if you lived in SE Huntsville or Hampton Cove. It's gotten a bit more difficult the past few years.

Extending 565 into Decatur should be on the upper end of somebody's priority list.

As I have pointed out in the past, 565 is nearly maxed out as is, and there are no good alternate choices for when it is a parking lot from wrecks or construction. A better, but contentious idea would be a second independent route.

As much as I dislike light rail, it might be time to consider a triangle of light rail -

One going up the median of 565 from the ULA area, with a stop near the old depot, to a new stop on the south of the arsenal, and then one downtown and up past A&M using the old RR right-of-way to reach residential developments to the northeast.

One going from downtown Decatur up the median of 31 to Athens and the old depot there, and extending up beside the rail route to Piney Chapel (that whole area has significant industry), with intention of eventual re-connection to Pulaski using the abandoned ROW, as the population spreads.

One going from Athens down the median of 72 to Huntsville, with a stop at the north end of the arsenal and connecting at a downtown depot to the Decatur line.

I leave out Bailey Cove because growth there will tend to be more high-end and NIMBY and the geographic difficulties.


Think fifty to a hundred years into the future and a quadrupling of population. 72, 565, 31 will all be either near-gridlock or 35 MPH average speed at best. You can see what has happened in Birmingham with 65 and 280. Both those roads were nearly traffic free as late as the 1980s when I lived there. Now... OMG. Birmingham growth has been much slower that what is now occurring here and will in the near future.

Busses on already crowded roads are not a good option. Dedicated bus lanes aren't a good solution either in this case. Light rail with regular service to key areas and AMPLE safe parking just might work.