The 'mayor' of Greystone

She’s never been elected to municipal office, but that has never stopped people from calling Mary Sue Ludwig the “mayor” of Greystone.

The 82-year-old woman has lived in the Greystone community for 28 years and is often one of the first people called upon when important issues arise that affect the affluent community.

If a developer wants to build a new subdivision or business near Greystone, she’s usually in the loop. If the state wants to make changes to U.S. 280 or Alabama 119 in that vicinity, Ludwig will know about it. If there are issues with taxes, sewer fees or fire dues, people will call her.

And Ludwig is almost always at any public meeting that involves the Greystone community, speaking out on behalf of residents, whether it involves the city of Hoover, city of Birmingham, Shelby County Commission, Shelby County Planning Commission, Alabama Department of Transportation, North Shelby Library Board or Cahaba Valley Fire District.

“She’s a strong voice for that part of the city,” Hoover City Council President Gene Smith said. “She’s a diamond for that community out there. … She cares about Greystone and Shelby County.”

Frank Brocato, the actual mayor of Hoover, described Ludwig as the “quintessential citizen servant.”

“Mary Sue is a servant leader that has her city’s best interest at heart and her community’s interest at heart,” Brocato said. “She has worked tirelessly for the city and Greystone community for decades.”

Ludwig moved to Mountain Brook from Atlanta in 1970 when her husband, Jim, got a job with Southern Company Services. They moved to Knoxville in 1986 but came back to the Birmingham area in 1992 when her husband was hired as president of Drummond Coal Sales. They settled in Greystone, moving into about the 25th house to be occupied in the community.

Ludwig said her desire was to play golf and bridge and be a young socialite, but “it didn’t work out that way.”

At that time, the development company, Daniel Corp., controlled the homeowners association, but Ludwig started the Greystone Ladies Club in 1993 and served as its first president.

The club was started primarily as a social club for entertainment purposes, but it didn’t take long for people to start using it as a sounding board for all types of issues, Ludwig said.

Ludwig asked Daniel Corp. to activate a resident-led homeowners association, but the developer wanted to maintain control and instead formed a nine-member advisory committee that included Ludwig. She served as chairwoman for a while as well.

“I was into everything,” she said.

She received a bill from the Cahaba Valley Fire District and didn’t understand why because she was in the city of Hoover, which has its own Fire Department. She called the fire district office to inquire, and a man was rude to her, she said. “That set me off.”

The Ludwigs were among plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed against the fire district, claiming double taxation.

At the time, “Shelby County was a rural, agricultural place, and they didn’t know what to do with us,” Ludwig said. “We came in here like gangbusters.”

The city of Hoover and Shelby County commissioners got involved, and as a part of negotiations, Ludwig and others persuaded state legislators to pass a law, giving Greystone residents a way out. The measure allowed residents who were annexed into a municipality to pay six years of fire dues upfront or one year at a time for eight years and be released from their fire district obligations.

Ludwig also got involved with the North Shelby Library District after receiving a bill from that agency. She had similar concerns with it because she paid taxes to Hoover for such services. But no deal could be worked out there, and Greystone residents still pay North Shelby Library District dues unless they are 65 or older, she said.

LAND USE AND TRAFFIC

Ludwig at one point got appointed and then elected to the North Shelby Library Board. She also served as chairwoman of a landowners committee that advised the Shelby County Planning Commission in the development of a North Cahaba Valley Road Corridor Development Plan, which established desired land uses from U.S. 280 to Lake Purdy.

She was appointed as one of three registrars for Shelby County for four years during former Gov. Bob Riley’s administration, was in the second class of Leadership Shelby County and was also a charter member of the Southern Women’s Committee of 50.

Ludwig also served on a committee that advised the Alabama Department of Transportation on traffic solutions for U.S. 280 in 2006.

ALDOT proposed an elevated roadway, but many businesses opposed it. Ludwig said she wanted to reopen Cahaba Beach Road to direct traffic off U.S. 280, but the idea was defeated. “I learned a lot about politics,” she said.

Ludwig said she’s had many successes in her dealings with government entities and developers, but she considers the lack of a good solution for traffic on U.S. 280 among her battles lost.

Another loss for her was the Tattersall Park development, which sits right against Greystone on Alabama 119. The developer, EBSCO, originally promised residents “a little Mountain Brook,” but brought forward a plan with an eight-story hotel, movie theater and more than 250 apartments, Ludwig said. Residents objected, saying the developer was trying to cram too much onto the property and buildings that were too tall.

A scaled-back plan with 120 to 200 condos, townhomes or loft apartments was approved in 2002, but the development stalled and a recession hit, leaving the site vacant for morethan a decade. Plans were revived about four years ago, but the development had lost its zoning and EBSCO has been developing the property in more of a piecemeal fashion.

Ludwig and her neighbors last year were able to defeat a proposal for an auto dealership in Tattersall, but some say it’s still not the upscale development they wanted.

“That’s a sore spot on my heart,” Ludwig said. “I feel like I’ve let the community down. I really wish we could have done a better job.”

She is proud to have been among a group that helped prevent a Roosters strip club on a part of U.S. 280 that is in Birmingham, she said. “It was a sleazy joint,” Ludwig said. “We went to Birmingham to get it stopped and told them we didn’t want this trash in our backyard.”

‘BULL BY THE HORNS’

Daniel Corp. turned over the Greystone Residential Association to the homeowners in 2005, and Ludwig has served as president three times. But she has been on the board of directors all 15 years and always been in charge of government affairs, regardless of her other duties.

Larry Daughety, the current president of the association, has been on the board more than 10 years and said Ludwig does an excellent job of representing the group to various outside entities. She goes to government meetings to keep tabs, keeps her board and residents informed and speaks out when necessary, he said.

Sometimes, she acts as a “one-man band” and speaks on behalf of the group, Daughety said, but she also knows when to mobilize the troops.

She always gets approval before speaking for the association and sometimes has to hold her tongue, but she’s also not shy about sharing her opinion, Daughety said.

“She takes the bull by the horns, and she goes after it like a bull in a china shop,” he said.

Her knowledge of the history of the Greystone development and development of surrounding land is very valuable, and she maintains great communication with people in the community, Daughety said.

“They give her a call whenever they have concerns or feel good about something,” he said. “That helps us as a board. We get the vibes from the neighborhood.”

Many people also may not know that she helps keep a tight rein on neighborhood expenses, Daughety said.

“There’s never a financial statement sent to us for approval that she does not ask very intelligent questions protecting the money of our residents,” he said.

SPEAKING HER MIND

Brocato said that, as mayor, he views Ludwig as a valuable resource and calls her frequently to gauge how the Greystone community feels about various issues.

“She’s someone we know we can go to and that we can get a straight answer from her,” he said. “She does not hesitate to call up and let us know when she doesn’t agree with the direction something is going in. … Mary Sue is going to tell you what’s on her mind.”

Smith said Ludwig has been instrumental in keeping problems from being worse than they could have been both inside and outside the gates at Greystone.

“She’s a great lady, and she doesn’t mind speaking her mind, and she does it in a way that she’s not abrasive, but you understand what her position is,” Smith said.

Ludwig said she’s not known for keeping her opinion to herself, but she hopes she never comes across as being arrogant or ugly.

The first time someone referred to her as the “mayor” of Greystone was in the late 1990s when she got out of a police car to be “locked up” for a charity event and a friend called her that on live TV.

The moniker stuck, and even the city’s former longtime official spokeswoman, Lori Schommer, frequently called her that when introducing her to others, often in front of one of the actual mayors.

“In the beginning, I was embarrassed,” Ludwig said. “Then I got tickled.”

Ludwig did run for the Hoover City Council twice — in 1996 and 2004 — but was not elected. She has been asked to run many other times and declined, she said.

At one point, she wanted to serve on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, but someone blocked her appointment, she said. When asked if she would serve on the commission now, she said she probably would if asked.

But for now, she’ll keep being Greystone’s government affairs director.

“I have tried to get out of it, but as long as I am in that position, I want to do it to the best of my ability.”