Why Is State Highway 181 Growing So Fast? Part 1
FAIRHOPE Ala
July 31, 2024
By: Rick McCann
If you live, work, or have to drive down State Highway 181, don’t blink because the next time you drive that way, things are gonna look much different.
County Road 27, the former name of State Highway 181, looks a whole lot different than it did just two years ago.
From the rural days when CR 27 was almost completely country with some farmland, some individual homes divided by acres of land, and a whole lot of peace and quiet to what it has become now can only be described as an avenue of thriving city life.
Times they are changing, and changing fast. But why? And why here and now?
Many thought that when Walmart announced that they were going to build a store at the intersection of CR 27 and CR 48, surely a big building boom would be close behind. Well, here it is, just a little longer than what most predicted.
Despite vocal opposition and even some protests from Fairhope residents, Walmart opened its 200,000-square-foot supercenter in July of 2007 on the nearly 60-acre lot on the east side of town.
In recent years, the boom along State Highway 181 can’t be ignored nor can it be stopped. Or, so it seems.
State Highway 181 runs North to South from Spanish Fort through Daphne and Fairhope before meeting up with US Highway 98 in the Barnwell community.
Much of this route runs parallel with US 98 to the west and numerous county roads both to the west and to the east, not to mention that it’s a main feeder artery right to Interstate 10.
Location, location, location. Ask any realtor, business owner, or city administrator how important that location is and they’ll point you to State Highway 181.
On a drive along this stretch just three days ago, I saw nine signs advertising land for sale, about six or seven signs marketing buildings and new office space for lease, several commercial spaces under construction, a huge apartment complex more than halfway built, a new convenience store being constructed at State Highway 181 and State Highway 104, the Baldwin County Surgery Center which just opened, a new shopping center anchored by a Publix store, and several plots of land were being prepared for building.
As with US 98, the 181 corridor connects people conveniently to shopping, restaurants, personal and medical services, new homes and apartments, Interstate 10 of course, and to one of the hottest areas in the county and the state.
Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope, and Barnwell are four of the fastest growing areas in Baldwin County and there are no slowdowns in sight.
While this all sounds great for the people selling the land, the builders and contractors putting up those new buildings, the people moving into the area, and the communities benefiting from the new tax base, there are also many concerns for safety, for the animals and for the loss of what locals consider to be the reason why so many want to live here. The beauty, the serenity, and the quaintness and charm of small Southern towns.
In part two, we’ll look at the traffic, the accidents, and the safety concerns that many have.
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