Located at the top of the highest hill overlooking Downtown Mobile, Spring Hill is treasured for its natural beauty, elegant residences, and its abundance of civic amenities. The main retail corridors and public infrastructure, however, are characterized by empty storefronts, buildings set back far off the street, large asphalt parking lots, and small discontinuous sidewalks. 

In recent years, Spring Hill residents became concerned about their community and decided to take action. They formed a volunteer non-profit organization called The Village of Spring Hill, Inc., landed two sizable grants, and hired Dover, Kohl & Partners to lead their community planning efforts. Over the course of seven days in November 2007, over 600 Spring Hill residents and stakeholders participated in a community charrette and created a plan for the transformation of Spring Hill’s existing strip commercial intersections into vibrant, mixed-use centers with comfortable sidewalks, street trees, on-street parking, and mixed-use, street-oriented buildings. 

The plan is comprised of three distinct study areas, each of which is an under-utilized commercial crossroads that has the potential to become a great village or neighborhood center. These crossroads include the intersection of Old Shell Road and McGregor Avenue, the intersection of Old Shell Road and Bit & Spur Road, including Lavretta Park, and the intersection of Museum Drive and McGregor Avenue.

Since the adoption of the plan, millions of dollars have been invested implementing the plan including a roundabout at the intersection of Museum Drive and McGregor Avenue, new sidewalks, a new pocket park on Old Shell Road, and numerous street-oriented buildings. What started as an optional code overlay for Spring Hill was made mandatory with the approved citywide code update in 2022.