"We want to vote on the right thing," Councilman Gerald Garner said on Oct. 12. That night the Mountain Brook City Council put off a decision on the Hollywood Gateway, the housing planned for the old Shades Valley Presbyterian Church property on Montevallo Road, Village Living reported.
At first glance the vote looks like a small zoning cleanup. For some buyers it matters more than that. In 2023 the city approved a 26-unit stacked-flat condominium building at the edge of Mountain Brook Village. Under the revised plan, that building would never go up. Seven more townhomes would take its place.
That's the catch for anyone hoping to buy a lock-and-leave home within walking distance of the village. In Mountain Brook, this kind of housing comes from one redeveloped site at a time. Each site goes through years of public hearings. And as this one shows, the type of home can change before construction starts.
Three versions of one 3.8-acre site
The church held its last service on May 29, 2022. Montevallo Partners LLC bought the campus on July 25, 2022, for $7.15 million, AL.com reported using Jefferson County tax records. Since then, the plan for the land has been redrawn twice.
| Version | Condo / stacked flats | Townhomes | Detached homes | Multifamily traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 application | 32 units in two three-story buildings | 0 | 14 | Not yet settled |
| June 20, 2023 approval, Ordinance 2143 | 26 units | 3 | 13 | Montevallo Road only |
| 2026 proposed amendment | 0 | 10 | 13 | Alley to the Chester Road side, now being revised |
Each version has fewer attached homes than the one before it. The 2022 plan had 32 condos. The plan before the council now has 10 townhomes and no condos. The city's staff report describes the change as a decrease of 19 multifamily units from the approved plan. The 13 detached homes stay the same, and Village Living reported they're already under construction.
The city documents and news coverage give no reason for dropping the condo building. They do spell out exactly what changes.
The swap changes the paperwork, not just the roofline
The city staff report lists every change the architect made to the planned unit development document. Two of them matter most to a buyer. The "Multi-family Use Area" is gone, and a "Townhomes Declaration" replaces the "Condominium Declaration."
If the amendment passes, the homes along Montevallo Road would be organized under a townhome declaration, not a condominium declaration, and the city's zoning data for that frontage would be written for townhouses alone. A buyer who has been waiting for "the condos by the village" would be looking at a different product from the one approved in 2023. Ask for the recorded declaration early and go over it with your own attorney. This is general information, not legal advice.
The buildings change too. The staff report notes that the approved plan allowed three stories over basement parking. The new elevations appear to show two stories over basement parking, and the townhouse elevations list a lower maximum height. The staff report also points to the city's Village Master Plan, which encourages denser residential development on the fringes of the village. In the same passage, staff call for special care with how the townhomes' scale and massing affect the one- and two-story homes behind them on Chester Road, which sits lower than the Montevallo Road frontage.
Why the alley became the sticking point
The layout change gets less attention, but it's what slowed the vote. In 2023, multifamily traffic was limited to Montevallo Road. The revised plan lets the townhomes use the north-south alley along the west property line, through the single-family section, out to Chester Court.
That limit was part of what made the 2023 approval possible. According to Village Living's coverage of the Sept. 8 Planning Commission meeting, Chester Road residents had pushed to keep development traffic off their street and won that point in June 2023. One resident told the commission that the condominium building "did not have any access to it. It was going in and out of Montevallo Road," Village Living reported.
The Planning Commission still recommended approval. It added two suggestions: controlled access to Chester Road, and as much parking as possible, preferably angled, along Montevallo Road for the townhomes.
At the council meeting, the gate idea fell apart. Here's how the Oct. 12 discussion went, per Village Living's report:
- A gate on the alley was ruled out because the alley is public space.
- A berm was suggested next. City Attorney Whit Colvin said that would mean readvertising the zoning request, and noted that part of the property is in neighboring Homewood.
- The developer will resubmit with the gate reference removed and a raised median added to block alley access. The city reviews it before readvertising.
- After a 15-day notice period, the council could take it up at its first scheduled November meeting or at a special meeting earlier in November.
As of this week, the townhome plan is still pending. A buyer interested in the Montevallo Road frontage is waiting on a vote that turns on how traffic reaches a residential street, not on the market.
How rarely this kind of housing shows up
What makes this one site so significant is how seldom Mountain Brook gets new attached housing near its villages at all. The nearest large example is Lane Parke in Mountain Brook Village. Daniel Corporation and Evson planned a 276-unit apartment community there with one-, two- and three-bedroom units, Village Living reported in 2013. The city approved that planned unit development on May 21, 2012, and the apartments opened in summer 2014. Those are rentals. If you want to own an attached home within walking distance of the village, the church site's Montevallo Road frontage is one of the few for-sale projects in the pipeline.
The timeline shows how slowly that pipeline moves. The Planning Commission first heard the original application on July 6, 2022. It recommended approval in October 2022. The council carried the case over twice, in January and May 2023, before approving it on June 20, 2023. More than three years later, the attached piece is back before the council in a different form. Chester Road residents have also raised traffic, drainage, parking and building height at earlier hearings, so the details get worked out in public, one meeting at a time.
What the September numbers say about the alternative
If you skip the wait and shop resale, here's what you're up against. Greater Alabama MLS data for Mountain Brook in September 2026 shows:
- 24 sales, up 33.3% from August
- A $1,223,500 median sale price
- 32 active listings at month's end, up from 29 at the end of August
- 60 average days on market, up from 43 in August
- A 104% average list-to-sale ratio
These are citywide figures that combine every property type. They don't break out condos and townhomes. Still, they put the church site in scale. Ten townhomes would equal almost a third of the 32 homes for sale in all of Mountain Brook at the end of September. Losing the 26 condos removes more units than were sold citywide that month.
The detached homes on the same site point to where new construction near the village is priced. In September 2024, lots there were being marketed at $1.25 million to $1.5 million, with custom homes offered at $2 million to $2.7 million or more, according to AL.com. Those are two-year-old asking prices, not closed sales. Even so, they're well above the September 2026 citywide median of $1,223,500. That gap is part of why the attached units on this site matter to buyers who want to be near the village without buying a new detached home.
Quick answers
Has the townhome plan been approved? Not as of this writing. The council delayed its vote on Oct. 12. A revised version adding a raised median has to be reviewed and readvertised, which points to a vote in early November at the soonest.
Is the property in Mountain Brook or Homewood? The address is 2305 Montevallo Road in Mountain Brook, but the city attorney noted that part of the property sits in Homewood.
How many detached homes are planned? The 2026 city plan shows 13. Earlier marketing material described 14 lots, so you may see either number.
If you've had your eye on a walkable, lower-maintenance home near Mountain Brook Village, the next few weeks will decide what the Montevallo Road frontage turns into. Sold by the Bell is following the Hollywood Gateway vote, and we'll help you compare it with the attached and detached homes already for sale around the villages. If you're thinking of selling a larger Mountain Brook home to make that move, start with Get Your Instant Home Valuation so you know your numbers before the council votes.
