City of Madison Goes for the Money

The City of Madison in the great state of Alabama recently annexed some land in the neighboring county down by the airport. The whole annexation in Alabama is screwy, but that is a longer post waiting to be written. A developer has come along and asked to build a $1 Billion mixed-use site there with stores, apartments and offices - pretty much what any developer proposes. The City approved it on Monday, as this story reports. The only dissenting voice was the Federal Aviation Administration who came along to point out that some of the apartments are in a high noise area of the airport. The City pooh-poohed that, saying it was no big deal. Believe me if you have lived in the area around an airport, especially on the landing approach, it can be a big deal. The airport also is only going to get busier. The FAA did this so that when somebody buys a house or moves into the apartment and sues they can point to the fact that they warned the City not to do this. The City of course is only after the money that such development brings, not really thinking about the long-term consequences.