Everything an asset to developers of Trussville Springs
Former industrial site will have more than 500 housing units

Birmingham Business Journal
October 3, 2008

by Ty West|staff

One of the main tenets of green development is reuse.

For Anderson Nikolich Design Initiative, it has been one of the hallmarks of their Trussville Springs project.

And that applies to everything on the 168-acre site – Even amenities that would seem to have no place in a massive residential development on the Cahaba River.

"We wanted to take advantage of existing conditions, rather than create liabilities,” Anderson said.

The firm has accomplished that through a series of innovative techniques.

For one, the site itself is being reused. Trussville Springs, which is being developed by Hearthstone Properties, is built on a former industrial site.

Rather than simply demolish the buildings, Anderson said the buildings were taken down and will now be rebuilt and reused at a separate location.  The 5.5-acre concrete foundations of those buildings were removed, crushed and reused as the base of the development, which will have more than 500 housing units.

"One of our goals is find imaginative ways to not think about things as waste, but to think about them in a cyclical pattern and to reconstitute materials and resources so they don’t end up as trash,” Anderson said.

The development will also take advantage of the natural beauty of the surrounding area, as well as the Cahaba River, which runs through the property. A former quary is being recast as a public park, while the developers are taking several steps to return the Cahaba River to its natural flow at the site.

Anderson said the river’s flood plain has been converted into a series of parks – no only to provide public access to the river, but also to limit development along the banks.

The development will also include a raid garden that will collect stormwater and use a series of wetlands to naturally decontaminate the water before returning it to the Cahaba River.

Aside from the actual construction of the project, Anderson said Trussville Springs will also be a development that encourages and enhances walkability.

Just a quarter-mile radius will separate all areas of the neighborhood to the town center.

The first phase of home construction is underway at the side, and Anderson said the homes are also being built with sustainability in mind.

Anderson said the development will include a mix of home types – including townhomes, condominiums and single-family homes – to create a community where individuals can move from place to place within Trussville Springs as their family needs change.

“We want people to age in place, rather than moving to a new neighborhood,” he said