Photo by Madoline Markham.
Samford Saulter Road Gate
Samford University will be updating a gate on its north end that connects to Saulter Road to be used an entrance/exit for emergencies only.
In response to growing enrollment, Samford University invited residents of the neighborhood surrounding its campus to a June 4 meeting to update them on campus developments and how neighborhoods might be affected. Around 30 people attended.
For the past seven years, the university has had record enrollment, said Vice President for University Relations Randy Pittman. Last year, the campus had 4,933 undergraduate and graduate students, and administrators expect that number to exceed 5,000 for the first time this year. 2015 also marks the first year for the new doctor of physical therapy, master of social work, master in nutrition and master in public health programs, all of which be housed in the school’s recently acquired former Southern Progress campus. A new road will soon connect the northeast corner of campus in the Beeson Woods residential hall area to the Southern Progress campus.
To accommodate this growth, the school is pursuing building and renovation projects, many of which are on the edges of campus.
Buck Brock, vice president for business and financial affairs, explained that the lower shop in the facilities building on the northwest edge of campus will become new “art lofts” to house the School of the Arts’ visual art department. The building is currently being renovated to add natural lighting, the gravel lot outside it will be paved and striped and the upper shop building above it will be torn down to create a new 49-space parking lot.
As a result of this development, the Homewood fire marshal has requested improved access to the area. A current driveway, located between two houses on Saulter Road near the South Wellington Road intersection, will be widened and a heavy duty Knox lock will be installed at the gate behind the homes. Only the fire department will be able to open this lock. A new chain link fence will be built in the spot, and a sign marking the emergency exit will be installed.
“That will not be a rear entrance to campus,” Brock said. “It is not our intent, we don’t want one. We are doing it at the request of the fire department.”
One resident wanted to know if the new parking lot would disrupt existing landscaping barriers on the edge of campus. Brock said it would not and that they would add more landscaping around the loft. In response to another question, he said that the area will continue to be a dumpster location but that they will be enclosed in new ways.
Another resident was concerned about the brightness of new lighting, and Brock responded that they are trying to be sensitive to neighbors in what they install.
Residents will see surveyors working along Saulter to survey for this project, as well as along other edges of the north end of campus for future projects under consideration, Brock said.
Some of the potential future developments he mentioned included replacing the current fraternity houses and building new residence halls on the north end of campus, located near the former Ramsay Hall location that is now a parking lot. Any of these projects that moves forward will first be brought before the neighbors, Brock said.
Later in the meeting, residents expressed concerns about houses that Samford owns in the neighborhood to the west and north of campus, especially houses on Devonshire Drive that have fallen into disrepair and that neighbors see as a “blight.”
Brock said that the university “needs to take [the houses on Devonshire] down,” and after the residents continued to ask about it, he said they would pursue doing so this summer. Mark Fuller, director of facilities management, said that the university had already priced having them torn down and that they could move forward with that process.
Brock also noted that in the fall only three houses owned by Samford outside its gates will be occupied by students. Two of those are on Windsor Boulevard and one is on Currie Way. All others that the university owns will generally house new faculty members.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Pittman encouraged residents to contact him at 726-2331 or rpittman@samford.edu with any concerns.