Photo by Caroline Miller
The Chelsea Planning Commission meets at Chelsea City Hall on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.
The Chelsea Planning Commission this week voted 4-1 in favor of a new 51-home subdivision on 33 acres along Shelby County 11 despite some residents’ concerns.
Richard Yerger is proposing the Pine Ridge development near where Mountain Crest Road connects with Shelby County 11.
Some residents voiced concerns about traffic at Monday night’s Planning Commission meeting.
“Anyone who drives this road regularly notices the problem,” Lewis Atchison said. “Highway 11 is a two-lane road serving existing neighborhoods, schools, businesses and a growing number of residential developments. During peak periods, particularly around Chelsea High School, traffic is already difficult. Adding another subdivision doesn’t add traffic in isolation. Those vehicles join every vehicle generated by every development that has already been approved. That’s why I believe the city needs to look at cumulative traffic, not simply the projected traffic from Pine Ridge.”
Starnes Media map based off information provided by city of Chelsea
Valeria Atchison said that subdivisions are about more than adding new homes.
“Every development approved along this corridor adds vehicles to the same road,” she said. “Approving a subdivision isn’t just about fitting houses onto acreage. We need to consider what daily life will actually look like once people move into these houses.”
Valeria Atchison also said the city should have answers for concerns.
“Those are not hypothetical planning questions,” she said. “Those are typical kinds of questions and situations that a subdivision designed is supposed to anticipate. Before the plan moves forward, I’m asking the city to make several questions have satisfactory answers.”
Rhett Loveman, a representative of Valor Communities, the company planning to develop the subdivision, said his company has met with the Shelby County Highway Department and David Willingham, the head county engineer. The county will require a third lane to allow for the calming of traffic and also left and right turns, Loveman said. That third lane would stretch roughly a third of a mile, he said.
“It would mimic what you see down in Chelsea High School, where there’s a third lane there,” Loveman said. “I know everyone’s goal is to obviously make Highway 11 safe.”
The official request to the city of Chelsea is to rezone the property from an agricultural-residential district, which requires lots to be at least 10 acres and 150 feet wide, to an R-2 residential district, which allows for lots down to 15,000 square feet and 75 feet wide. Valor Communities plans to build houses “upwards of $500,000” — something that will be a move up for a lot of the starter homes already in Chelsea, the development company said.
Site plan courtesy of city of Chelsea
Valor Communities wants to build 51 homes on 33 acres off Shelby County 11 in Chelsea, Alabama, in a community proposed to be called Pine Ridge.
Denny Hodges was the only member of the Chelsea Planning Commission to vote against the rezoning. Hodges said the owner and developer have tried very hard to make the development work, but he can’t support adding that much traffic in that area.
“I don’t know how much more Highway 11 can take,” Hodges said. “Some of it is safety related; some of it is just the fact that … I don’t know how much more can be put on that highway, especially in a small stretch that we’re talking about between the high school and the intersection.”
Voting in favor of the rezoning were Leigh McKinnon, Billy Sanders, Carlos Sanders and Mayor Cody Sumners.
Bobby Adams, who represents the Yerger family as a development manager, said he believes the proposed turn lane would resolve people’s traffic concerns.
“We still have several more steps to go through with the City Council, and so we’re going to present plans that are in conformance with all that, that meet the Shelby County guidelines and regulations … and then that meet the city zoning requirements,” Adams said. “We’re going to present our case in a few weeks or a month to the City Council. We may think through some of the comments we heard today and adjust accordingly, but I think we have a great plan. I think it’s going to bring a lot of value to Chelsea. I think the move-up product to being that $500,000-plus is a big deal for Chelsea. They have a lot of starter homes and a lot of big-time homes, but having a product that helps the growing family in Chelsea and continue to put roots down in Chelsea will be a great addition to this community.”
Mayor Cody Sumners said the next step for this development includes a public hearing with the
City Council, followed by a vote on whether or not to approve the rezoning. The vote could take place either at the same meeting as the public hearing or at a separate meeting, he said.
A date for the public hearing had not been set as of Monday, but Sumners said it is expected to take place within the next 30 days.
In other business Monday, the Chelsea Planning Commission approved:
- Final plans for 49 residential lots on 88 acres in the first phase of Oakmont at Lime Creek, an extension of the Lime Creek subdivision at the end of Lime Creek Way
- Preliminary plans for 50 residential lots on 22 acres in phase two of the fifth sector of Chelsea Park at the end of Chelsea Park Bend
