Proposed warehouse along Mobile’s Rabbit Creek draws fury of environmental groups

Proposed warehouse along Mobile’s Rabbit Creek draws fury of environmental groups

A proposed warehouse park in Theodore has drawn ire from some residents, environmental groups and one member of the Mobile City Council, who argue that the park—which would require filling in wetlands— would damage the Rabbit Creek ecosystem, and by extension, the entire Dog River watershed.

“The citizens of Mobile and the environment of Mobile are being sacrificed for somebody’s economic interest, and I’m not sure it’s even ours,” Cade Kistler, leader of Mobile Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy group, says.

Right now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering an application from Scannell Properties, based in Indianapolis, Ind., to fill in nearly 87 acres of wetlands along Rabbit Creek for the first two phases of the development. There’s no date on when the corps will have a decision on the application, Dustin Gautney, chief of Public Affairs and Media Relations with the corps of engineers’ Mobile District.

The city government of Mobile and the Mobile County Commission are also weighing whether to give the developer an incentive for the project.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management received a request from the developer for water quality certification earlier this week. That assessment should happen shortly, Lynn Battle, a spokesperson for ADEM, said, and will be factored into the application to the corps.