Huntsville, housing authority finalizing master plan for $400 million makeover of distressed neighborhood

Huntsville, housing authority finalizing master plan for $400 million makeover of distressed neighborhood

The city of Huntsville and the Huntsville Housing Authority are finalizing the master plan for the $400 million Mill Creek transformation.

Shane Davis, the city’s director of urban and economic development, said the master plan may be unveiled publicly later this month. The project – called the Choice Neighborhood Initiative – will be funded by a mixture of federal grant money, local government funds and private investment.

Davis said city planners, city council members and Housing Authority board members met last week to work on the master plan. The unveiling, which will include artist renderings, will reveal how the project will be implemented and what it will contain.

The project, which will be done in phases over several years, will revitalize a 28-acre distressed neighborhood not far from downtown that included Butler Terrace, Butler Terrace Addition and Johnson Towers.

Housing authority units on the site have been demolished, with many of the residents already evacuated because of radon-related health risks in some of the buildings.