Cooper plans large project in Alabama

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
Nov. 13, 2003
Nearly 10 months after abandoning plans for a $35 million retirement community in Meridian, officials with Arkansas-based Cooper Land Development Inc. have turned their attention to Alabama.
Cooper officials announced plans last month for a development on the Alabama Gulf Coast in one of the state's fastest growing counties Baldwin County.
Plans call for about 9,000 homes and three 18-hole championship golf courses to be built over the next 15 years on a 5,000-acre tract of land near Stockton.
The announcement of the new development in Alabama comes less than a year after Cooper nixed plans for a smaller project on city-owned land in Meridian. In January, Cooper officials blamed the sluggish national economy for their decision.
The company had originally planned to build 3,000 upscale homes and two new golf courses on 1,314 acres of city-owned land near the Long Creek Reservoir and billed it as one of their smallest developments.
Meridian officials had hoped the community would lure hundreds of new residents and businesses, strengthening the city's tax base.
Cooper Land officials in Arkansas declined to comment about the new development in Alabama and referred all questions to Lewis regarding the project.
Lewis said it was his understanding that Cooper officials were "declining any feedback regarding the development."
He did, however, say that public input, which Cooper officials have said is critical to their decision to build in a given area, appears to be strong in Baldwin County.