Mobile Council Releases 297 Acres Near Bear Fork Road for Unnamed Commercial Project

Update (Sept. 30, 2026): The Mobile City Council unanimously approved the de-annexation of the 297 acres on Tuesday, Sept. 29, after holding the ordinance over for an additional week of review. City officials still have not said what will be built on the land. Details are in the new section below.

MOBILE, Ala. — The City Council’s agenda for Tuesday, Sept. 15, included a first reading of an ordinance to remove four parcels of land owned by Norris Land Acquisition Company in District 5 from the city of Mobile.

The undeveloped tracts, amounting to 297 acres, are located north of Bear Fork Road and east of Jarrett Road. The area was annexed into Mobile in 2023.

What the Councilman Said

District 5 Councilman Beau Fleming said a group wants to transform the property into a commercial development. He did not name the group nor explain the nature of their plans.

However, Fleming said the property may come back into the city of Mobile once the development is complete.

Norris Land Acquisition Company brought the de-annexation petition to the City Council, according to the agenda item.

Why a Developer Would Want Out

De-annexation requests on undeveloped land typically turn on the differences between city and county regulation. Property inside a municipality is subject to that city’s zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations, building codes, permitting process and municipal taxes. Property in the unincorporated county is subject to county requirements, which in Alabama are frequently less extensive.

Fleming’s comment that the property may return to the city once development is complete is the detail that gives the request its shape. A sequence in which land leaves a city for the development phase and returns afterward would mean the project is built under county rules and then brought into the municipal tax base as a finished asset.

The city has not stated whether any such return has been agreed to, and a future council would make that decision.

The Corporate Trail

While the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office lists Norris Land Acquisition Company’s address as an office building in Montgomery, the company appears to have ties to Georgia.

The de-annexation petition was notarized in Monroe County, Georgia, and Mobile County property records list Norris Land Acquisition Company’s address as 42 Railroad Avenue in Forsyth, Georgia.

American Craftsman Homes, a family-owned homebuilding company, is located at 42 Railroad Avenue in Forsyth. A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shared address does not by itself establish a relationship between the two entities, though it is the kind of detail that narrows the question of who is behind the request.

What a First Reading Means

An ordinance appearing on a council agenda for a first reading has not been adopted. Under standard municipal procedure, an ordinance is introduced at one meeting and considered for adoption at a subsequent one, which provides an interval for public notice and comment.

The 2023 annexation that brought the property into the city is recent enough that its removal three years later invites questions about what changed — whether development plans evolved, whether regulatory requirements proved more demanding than anticipated, or whether the original annexation was undertaken with different expectations.

District 5 and the Area

The tracts sit north of Bear Fork Road and east of Jarrett Road in a part of Mobile County where undeveloped acreage remains available at a scale no longer common closer to the city center. Land of that size is attractive for commercial development precisely because assembling 297 contiguous acres in a developed area is generally not possible.

The City Council was expected to take up the ordinance at a subsequent meeting.

Latest developments: Council approves de-annexation

The council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to approve the ordinance removing the 297 undeveloped acres north of Bear Fork Road and east of Jarrett Road from the city limits at the request of Norris Land Acquisition Company. The measure had been laid over the week before for further review.

Questions about the project behind the request remain unanswered. Fleming and Councilman Josh Woods have offered only limited details, saying an unnamed developer wants to use the land for a commercial project that will not be retail. Fleming has said the property could be brought back into the city once the development is finished.

Why the city says it agreed

City Chief of Operations James Barber told reporters after the meeting that the de-annexation was a matter of simplifying jurisdiction, because part of the developer’s property was inside the city and the rest was in unincorporated Mobile County.

“In order to make it less complicated, we just de-annexed that portion that was in the city,” Barber said. “We have some ideas of what the development might look like, but we don’t have anything firm.”

Pressed on what is planned, Barber declined to describe the project.

“I really can’t get into the development itself,” he said. “I think that is more of a question for the county than it is for the city.”

The county’s role

With the land now outside the city, oversight of the property shifts to Mobile County. The parcels appear to fall within Mobile County Commission District 2, represented by Commissioner Connie Hudson, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unlike the city, Mobile County does not have countywide zoning, so development in the unincorporated area is governed mainly by the county’s subdivision regulations, land-use permitting and building requirements rather than by a zoning ordinance. That difference is one reason property owners sometimes prefer to develop in the county.

Property records continue to tie Norris Land Acquisition Company to an address in Forsyth, Georgia, shared by American Craftsman Homes, a family-owned homebuilding company. Neither company has publicly described plans for the site.

What happens next

Any development plans for the property would now go through Mobile County’s review process. If the project is completed and the owner later seeks to rejoin the city, as Fleming has suggested could happen, a new annexation would have to come back before the City Council for approval.

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