Foley, Ala. – (OBA) – Foley has established greenbelt zones to serve as buffers between major roads and new developments. The Foley City Council recently voted to approve an amendment to the zoning ordinance to create these zones. According to Wayne Dyess, Foley's Executive Director of Infrastructure and Development, the greenbelt zones will feature trees or other natural barriers to create a separation between roadways and new construction areas.

“This would be a buffer area that will be required when you have residential development abutting arterial and collector roadways in the city,” Dyess said. “This area would be a green space. You could have sidewalks, lighting community walls or fences in this area. This is designed to create a more pleasant traveling environment, but to also create a noise and visual barrier for the neighborhoods that are next to these arterial roadways.”

The greenbelt would include landscaping, trees, shrubs and ground cover to create a barrier along the front perimeter of a subdivision. The greenbelt would be at least 25 feet wide.

Dyess said the ordinance allows the Planning Commission flexibility to suit the requirements to a particular location.

“It is flexible enough to allow the Planning Commission to modify this where conditions might dictate,” Dyess said. “Those areas would specifically relate to the particular development around it to make sure it's in the context of the surroundings.”

Areas where modifications might be allowed could include the downtown central business area, adjacent downtown neighborhoods, village centers with high street connectivity and developments with superior design, where the greenbelt may not align with the surrounding or adjacent development context.

The greenbelt zones will mitigate the canyon-like effect of long rows of fences lining major streets next to large subdivisions. Landscaping will break up the continuous lines and soften the appearance of perimeter fencing on the boundary of a subdivision.

The Foley Public Works Department is working on plans to plant trees along municipal rights-of-way, collaborating with a landscape architect for location, design and species recommendations.

The city project to replant trees is part of a broader effort to re-establish the canopy that was lost in Hurricane Sally in 2020.

The ordinance will not apply to existing subdivisions. The requirements will be only for developments that will be built in the future.

Under the ordinance, the greenbelt zones will be maintained by the subdivision property owner’s association or the homeowner's association.