By: Abigail Woods
Between the years of 2010 to 2020, the city of Huntsville, Alabama, jumped in population from approximately 180,000 to 215,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This jump in population proves that in this 10-year span, Huntsville, now the largest city in Alabama, showed an increase of over 100,000 people in the area.
In a 2021 article published by the U.S. News titled, Huntsville now Alabama’s largest city, overtakes Birmingham. New Census members announced the feat and included the updated population number of 215,006.
Huntsville, nicknamed Rocket City for its ties to NASA and space exploration, is proving that a rapidly growing city can come with both advantages and disadvantages. More people in the city means more housing needs to be built, but if new housing is built, trees must be chopped down and landscaping redesigned.
If more people are on the streets, there is an increase in traffic and consequently, car accidents. This increase in citizens also means more pollution, more littering and more development within the city.
While sitting down with some of the town’s leading citizens, answers were uncovered and stones unturned. After all, no city comes without growing pains, but what does that look like for the Southern city of Huntsville.
Thomas Nuñez - Manager of Planning Services of Huntsville
Introducing Thomas Nuñez, the manager of planning services in Huntsville. A native of Chicago, Nuñez found himself in Alabama when he attended Alabama A&M University to earn both his undergraduate and master’s degree. Having lived in Huntsville for 22 years, Nuñez said he has worked with the city for 10 years now.
The manager of planning services for approximately four years, Nuñez has been with the planning department for his entire career. Originally starting out in the geographic information division, Nuñez worked his way up.
“I’m very fortunate and blessed to be a part of that,” he said.
Now a certified Huntsvillian, Nuñez said one of the things that kept him in Huntsville was the growth and the diversification of employment. He recalled the economic downturn of 2007-2008 and said the country being at war during that time showed that our city was different from any other city, in that Huntsville is home to the Department of Defense for Redstone Arsenal. A defense and space manufacturing plant, Redstone Arsenal is predicted to employ 50,000 people by the year 2025, according to an al.com article.
In his younger years, he said he realized Huntsville was an exceptional city because of the diversification. That diversification was dependent on the government and governmental contracts to attract employment opportunities such as Toyota manufacturing and Boeing.
“I've been fortunate enough to see that growth, and now we have a Facebook data center, Mazda Toyota, Polaris and two Amazon facilities, different entities as GE that builds composite metal for airplanes,” Nuñez said.
Nuñez remarked while growth is good for the city, there are growing pains to consider.
“For example, I have young kids and my son he wakes up in the middle of the night and he says, ‘Daddy my knees hurt, my elbows hurt’ and literally he can feel these growing pains, so from that, same as the city, as we continue to grow, we are always continuing to evolve,” he said.
Since the majority of the city is car dependent, there has been an increase in traffic flow and in traffic overall.
“I remember when I got here in ‘99 I would joke with my friends and say, ‘Oh you can get to anywhere in Huntsville in eight minutes,’ I would say our commuter times now, at peak traffic times, are typically about 30-35 minutes,” he said.
Now, there are needs to improve roads, reinvest in resurfacing to eliminate potholes and car issues that could be caused by them. In the same breath, according to Nuñez, the growth of Huntsville brought diversification of entertainment such as new walking trails, greenways, biking opportunities as well as opened doors in the residential world. New areas across town have begun to see massive change including the area once known as Madison Square Mall, now known as MidCity District.
“Now Madison Square Mall is Top Golf, it is Dave & Busters, it is Trader Joe’s, and it is a mix-use district that has housing components and also a lot of entertainment components,” he said.
Brian Walker - Director of Landscape Management
Brian Walker, director of landscape management, said he was appointed to this position by the mayor. Prior to his appointment, he had 19 years of experience. This role requires him to direct the department of 175 full time employees and 125 temporary employees whose responsibilities are to maintain the grass, turf, flowers, shrubs and trees along all city right of ways, parks, greenways, athletic fields, street sweeping and litter control.
In reference to the city’s rapid growth, Walker said, “We are expanding our footprint, which makes it harder to do our work in a timely manner. Huntsville now covers over 222 square miles. Along with growth comes a lot of building, which in turn accumulates more litter along the ROW’s that our crews have to remove.”
Additionally, more usage of greenways and parks requires more work for the landscape crews, especially for special events and athletic tournaments.
So, who is in charge of fixing the aforementioned litter issue? Walker said Operation Green Team, the environmental education group associated with the city of Huntsville. In conjunction with the group, there are year-round social media and advertising campaigns to notify the citizens of the litter issues.
“We are an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and follow their guidelines of educating the public about litter, recycling and beautifications. Huntsville is one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the Southeast of its size. But we always strive to make it better,” he said.
Marc Byers - City Arborist of Huntsville
City arborist of Huntsville, Marc Byers handles all things trees within the city. He ensures maintenance of all trees on city properties, parks, right of ways, along the roads and in front of homes.
According to Byers, the most common concern he deals with is trees behind fences in easement properties. He said he spends a lot of his time explaining the legalities of easements to homeowners and what the city does or does not do in those areas.
Speaking of new developments in the area, Byers said, “Well, that’s a difficult question to answer because a lot of it depends on the size of the lot and the house. On typical residential houses, it is extremely difficult to build a house and properly protect any existing trees.”
He continued, “So you build a $200-300,000 house on a lot with big trees all around it, looks good the day you move in, but the root compaction from the construction process and the root cuts from the foundation, the piping that goes in, piping, irrigation; the trees don’t die in one year, the trees die in 5-10 years, but they die, and you’ve got an expensive house that is threatened by a tree that now costs a lot more because the house is in the way.”
Replacement of these trees, if they must be cut down, happens either by the developer as part of the development or sometimes the HOA would require tree replacement by the homeowner.
“I'm in a position to protect trees but also protect the interest of everybody affected by the trees, and that becomes tricky. Trees are particularly emotional for some people,” Byers said.
Pamela Marshall - Lead gardener at Huntsville Botanical Garden
Pamela Marshall serves as a lead gardener at the Huntsville Botanical Garden. The Garden, a hotspot for vibrant flowers, decorated flower beds and scenic nature strolls, serves as one of many outdoor entertainment entities in Huntsville. Having been around since 1988, the Botanical Garden is open year-round as they offer events for every season.
Marshall started her time at the Garden as a volunteer, followed by becoming part-time, then seasonal and now full-time as a lead gardener. With the Garden for 10 years now, she said she is thrilled to be able to pursue her love of gardening while giving back to the community.
“I grew up gardening with my grandmother, my grandfather had a garden so that's kind of how I got my passion was through my grandparents,” she said.
Marshall witnessed Huntsville through its growth in the past 10 years and explained how visitorship increased at the Garden, as well as the need to continue planting.
On the day-to-day, Marshall explained, “I have supervisors who come in each day, and they tell me what I need to do and then I have three or four gardeners that work with me so we all work through the chain of command there.”
She and her fellow gardeners are in charge of a number of tasks, including the planting of trees.
“We plant trees and shrubs and gardens, we plant beds, we prune, we do a lot of work on trees like arboriculture and stuff removing the dead, diseased wood, dead plants.”
With five to 10 volunteers a day at the garden, all are working to improve the environment and make it an overall better place for the growing population to enjoy.
Emily Garfunkel - Local businesswoman
Emily Garfunkel, a small business mentor in the health and wellness space, works from the comfort of her own home. In Huntsville for 25 years, she saw the growth happening over time.
“Although I do work from home, I have noticed a huge increase in everyday traffic and reported car accidents. In fact, I don’t even like to leave my house anymore past 4 p.m. because I know the traffic will be so bad,” she said.
For those that do commute to work in Huntsville, the time in which they must leave for work has had to be adjusted. Instead of allowing only 30 extra minutes, many people now must allow an hour minimum to ensure they are on time for their job.
In Closing
While the rapid growth of Huntsville has caused the aforementioned issues, it has also allowed the city to prosper and thrive in all of the ways a big city should. Through the addition of new jobs, added housing, wider roads and more options for entertainment, Rocket City appears to be well on its way to being one of the best cities in all of Alabama
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