Nearly 400 new homes will be constructed in a neighborhood outside of Silverhill, after the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday approved two new subdivisions only a half-mile apart from each other.

“That’s part of the problem when they do these types of developments in rural areas, they just really don’t fit there,” Steven Pumphrey, chair of the commission, said during the meeting Thursday. “But they got this one in before zoning came in, so it is what it is.”

The commission has little discretion in subdivision cases; Baldwin County’s Subdivision Regulations require that it approve any subdivision that has met the county’s technical requirements.

Highlands at Fish River and Elizabeth Gardens will both be built along Bohemian Hall Road, in unincorporated Baldwin County. Highlands at Fish River will be 138 lots, built in four phases; Elizabeth Gardens will be 260 lots built over three phases.

Both received preliminary plat approval from the planning commission, despite resident concerns about the strain that number of homes will bring to the area. The owner and developer of Highlands at Fish River is listed as Elandrous, LLC, based in Cantonment, Fla. The developer of Elizabeth Gardens is D.R. Horton.