Oh why o why?

Last week the Calhoun County Commission voted to demolish abandoned structures on the campus of former  Fort McClellan.  Get this these buildings have significant historical status, but Calhoun County officials feels that they are so dangerous that anyone going into them could get hurt.  Uh, I used to work for the state of Alabama and one of the things I used to do is go on to the campus all the time, yet noticed that the campus has much potential to be something great and conductive for future growth for the Anniston area particularly the City of Anniston.  McClellan could easily be incorporated into the urban infrastructure of Anniston and help Anniston set standards for that would be allow for more sustainable growth and development.  Also there are a number of bus shelters there that could be incorporated into the Anniston Citizens Transit System (ACTS). 

However, the campus was forcefully de-annexed from Anniston because of legal technicality specifying that Calhoun County, not Anniston would have zoning and land-use authority over the campus of Fort McClellan, which effectively has no zoning or land-use authority thanks to the inadequate Alabama Constitution.  Now there is suppose to be a commission that is made up of officials from Calhoun County Commission, the City of Anniston, state legislators, and congressional representative to issues recommendations for the future of the McClellan campus, but these recommendation practically have zero legal standing when it come to developers.  Calhoun is one of the 64 counties in Alabama that lacks home rule or self-govern authority over zoning, taxation, or land-usage.  Anybody can practically do anything they want as long as it falls within legal standards of state code on building and land-usage.  

Well, I for one think that Calhoun County Commission inability to find alternative solution to the problem with these structures is another symptom to Alabama's inability to progress under its lame state charter.  It is debatable who could or would be the better operator of the Fort McClellan campus, but the fact that one has land-usage authority and the other doesn't does matter.  Until somebody can get land-use and zoning authority to Calhoun County then more shortsighted decisions will be made on things involving McClellan area and its historically and developmentally-speaking sustainable layout.  What a shame!