Dothan tapping potential of SE Health-anchored east side

For the last decade, growth has been disproportionately concentrated on Dothan’s north and northwest sides. Southeast Health, governed by the Houston County Healthcare Authority, has always bolstered the east side with continued capital investment.

Initially built in 1957, the medical group has continued to grow and expand its footprint – most recently by opening a medical college and its construction of a large medical park nearby – giving Dothan leaders an opportunity to incentivize further residential and business development near that corridor.

“We’re looking at this from a very broad view of community and economic development,” City Manager Kevin Cowper said. “This particular area is a medical hub. The investment of ACOM (Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine) in this area is a tremendous asset. It’s an anchor for that area of Dothan that we feel like we can develop and improve economic prosperity.”

Shortly after ACOM opened in July 2013, the Houston County Healthcare Authority started developing more plans to broaden its impression in that area. It bought a 39-acre plot behind the Winn-Dixie along Highway 84 East that is slated to become a medical park.

The first construction projects are underway in the medical park, which is scheduled to open later this year. Digestive Health Specialists of the Southeast is expanding and adding a new clinic location in the park. The clinic will be located next to The Center for Digestive Health, a new outpatient endoscopy center which is a partnership between Digestive Health Specialists and Southeast Health.

The medical park development is between Winn Dixie and Beverlye Road and can be accessed from U.S. 84 East and Ross Clark Circle.

In December 2017, the Authority purchased the former Dothan Village property at auction across the street on Highway 84 East. Dothan Village was supposed to be a mixed-use retail development, but construction came to a grinding halt in 2015. It is unclear why the highly-anticipated project stopped, but some have mused that the project went bankrupt or that the developer simply walked away.

The Authority saw the property, which already has some infrastructure like sewer and utilities in place, as a future opportunity.

“The Houston County Health Care Authority has a long history of making strategic investments to improve quality and access to healthcare for the community,” Mark Stewart, director of community relations, said in an email. “Purchasing the property reinforces the healthcare system’s commitment to being an economic catalyst for growth on Dothan’s eastside.”

While there are still no immediate plans for the 77-acre property, Stewart said it fits within its current strategic footprint in close proximity to Southeast Health and ACOM.

In 2018, the Highway 84 East Corridor Plan was released with a vision that incorporates the city government’s goals of addressing access and mobility, aesthetics, health and wellness, economics, and environment of the high-traffic route. In the last several years, the focus for Dothan has been to make the area more pedestrian-friendly, taking into account the growing student population at ACOM, expanding medical services, and residential development.

A mixed-trail for walking and biking was constructed in front of the college campus and extended to the former Dothan Village property in 2019 to increase accessibility, and the city of Dothan has committed to more sidewalks around the hospital.

An upcoming sidewalk project, partly funded by the state, will be directly in front of Southeast Health on Ross Clark Circle.

The goal, which was listed as a priority in the 84 East Corridor Plan, is to connect the downtown district with the area around Southeast Health and the “college-anchored district” surrounding ACOM with mixed-use trails.

“The medical district, because of its proximity to downtown, it becomes obvious that the downtown can benefit from the medical center so we want to make those physically connected,” Cowper said. “In the broader picture of that, we have a lot of new development that has primarily occurred in the north and northwest parts of the city, but we have a lot of older parts of the city that are underutilized as part of that sprawling development pattern. It’s important that economic development is a city-wide program.”

The city is also planning a multi-use use path that Cowper described as a meandering sidewalk in front of the Dothan City Cemetery to be called Memorial Trail. The project involves some landscape beautification and is planned to start later this year. Then, Dothan will start looking at other pedestrian gaps along that route that include the 84 East bridge.

The 84 East Corridor study also highlighted significant drainages running through the target area, including the Poplar Springs Branch, a creek system that provides opportunities for trails and recreation.

The city has commissioned a study of the creek that starts somewhere downtown, likely underneath Liddon Furniture, and continues along 84 East branching off near Southeast Health and to the north of East Burdeshaw Street around several neighborhoods.

The results of the Poplar Springs Branch study are supposed to be revealed before the end of April.

City officials are hoping to create a walking path along the creek system, and are also eyeing vacant and underutilized land near the Poplar Springs Branch that could have development opportunities as well, Cowper said.

An important part of the jigsaw puzzle is creating design guidelines for the corridor.

“The piece that we’re missing is the regulations,” Frank Breaux, the City of Dothan’s principal planner, said. “My understanding is we’re going to get funding to do this regulatory piece so it’ll be like a toolbox to guide development, probably in the form of an overlay district… It is something that we’ll be doing sooner rather than later.”

An overlay district would bring architectural standards, parking setback requirements, and other regulations that will be different from the current zoning requirements.

While implementation of concepts highlighted in the plan is finally getting momentum, it will take developer interest for the vision of a suburban dreamscape to come to fruition. Though a big retail project and plan for upscale apartments have failed to get off the ground in recent years, further investment by Southeast Health and a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare could tap the potential of Dothan’s eastside.