QUICK SUMMARY
5602 Highway 69 N in Northport is just under three acres, zoned C-3, and listed at $550,000. Under Northport’s zoning ordinance as amended through May 19, 2025, C-3 is the General Commercial District. An office, an enclosed retail store, a restaurant or bar, a hotel, a salon, a daycare, a church, a vet or pet grooming shop, a dance or music studio and a landscaping or janitorial company are all permitted by right. A car wash, gas station, minor auto repair shop, climate-controlled self-storage, office-warehouse, home improvement center, vehicle sales lot, and any home on the property are allowed with conditional use approval from the Planning Commission and City Council. The list below is pulled straight from Table 5-1 of the ordinance. Mary Anne Williams and Dan Williams with The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty have the listing.
Most buyers scroll past this one. It looks like a country house on Highway 69 with a barn out back, and you can see the full listing here. What the photos do not tell you is that the land under it is zoned commercial, and that changes what the three acres are worth to the right person.
Last updated: September 2026. Use rules below reflect the City of Northport Zoning Ordinance as amended through May 19, 2025.
What does C-3 zoning mean in Northport?
Zoning is the city’s rule book for what you can do with a piece of land. Northport’s nonresidential districts are O-I (office and institutional), C-2 (neighborhood commercial), C-3 (general commercial), C-6 (highway commercial, for McFarland Boulevard), M-1 and M-2 (manufacturing).
The ordinance says the C-3 district exists “to provide areas for general retail sales, personal and professional services, and other compatible commercial activities serving a citywide customer base.” In plain English: this is where Northport puts everyday business that serves the whole town.
Table 5-1 of the ordinance lists every use and marks it one of three ways:
P means permitted by right. No hearing. Get your permits and your business license and go.
C means conditional use. Allowed, but only after a public hearing and a City Council vote.
A blank box means no. That use is prohibited in that district unless the land is rezoned.
What can you do on C-3 land by right?
These uses are marked P in the C-3 column. No conditional use hearing required:
Offices and money. Business and professional offices, banks and financial services, business support services, funeral homes.
Retail and food. General retail (enclosed), shopping centers both major and minor, package stores, standard restaurants, fast food restaurants, take-out and delivery only restaurants, restaurant-bars, bars, and commissaries (kitchens that cook for catering and food trucks).
Personal services. The ordinance defines personal service as care of a person or their belongings: hair, nail and tanning salons, licensed massage therapists, and repair of watches, phones, tablets and computers.
Service companies. Maintenance service is permitted by right and the ordinance defines it as janitorial, exterminating, landscape and window cleaning businesses. Repair services for appliances and electronics are permitted too.
Pets. Veterinary office and pet grooming, which the ordinance allows to include overnight boarding inside a fully enclosed building.
Family and community. Day care centers, places of worship, community centers, assisted living, extended care, cemeteries, and both major and minor institutional uses.
Fun. Indoor entertainment (theaters and live music venues), indoor recreation, minor outdoor recreation, golf courses, parks, and studios for dance, music or art.
Travel and training. Hotels and fully enclosed commercial or trade schools. (A motel, oddly, is not allowed in C-3. A hotel is.)
Plants and parts. Garden centers and nurseries, auto accessory stores, dry cleaning drop-off, freestanding vending facilities.
What needs a conditional use approval first?
These uses are marked C in the C-3 column. They are allowed, but you have to be approved before you can pull a building permit:
Cars and fuel. Minor automobile repair, car wash, gas station, vehicle sales or rental.
Trades and light industry. Minor construction service (a contractor, electrician or plumber whose outdoor storage is only incidental), artisanal manufacturing, office-warehouse.
Storage. Climate-controlled self-storage.
Bigger retail. Building material sales, home improvement centers, unenclosed retail and flea markets, wholesale nurseries, laundromats.
Housing. Single-family detached, townhouses, multifamily, cottage developments and upper-story dwellings are all conditional in C-3. Group homes are permitted by right.
Other. Outdoor entertainment, brewpubs, hospitals, telecommunication towers, major public utility facilities.
How the conditional use process works in Northport. You apply with a site plan before you apply for a building permit. Adjoining property owners get notice by certified mail. The Planning Commission holds a public hearing and sends a recommendation to the City Council within 30 days. The Council makes the final call and can attach conditions covering landscaping, buffers, parking, lighting and building materials. Budget real time for this, and talk to the city before you write the offer.
What is not allowed in C-3?
This is the part that saves people money. These are blank in the C-3 column, which means prohibited without a rezoning:
Outdoor storage as a principal use. You cannot buy this and run a storage yard on it. Boat and RV lots, contractor yards and equipment yards are out.
Major construction service. That is the ordinance’s term for a trade business with outdoor storage. Only the minor version counts, and outdoor storage there cannot cover more square footage than the building itself.
Mini-warehouses. Regular drive-up storage units are not in C-3. Only the climate-controlled kind, and only with approval.
Kennels, major auto repair, towing, heavy equipment sales, warehousing and distribution, manufacturing. Those live in C-6, M-1 or M-2.
Public or private schools, motels, tattoo shops, tobacco and vape shops, farm produce sales, RV parks and campgrounds. None of these are C-3 uses.
So what could you actually put on three acres here?
Here is the same question Dan keeps coming back to, answered against the real table. Each idea is tagged with what the ordinance requires.
1. A landscaping, janitorial or pest control company. Permitted. Maintenance service is a by-right use. Park in the barn and the outbuilding, keep the yard clean, and you are a permitted business on day one.
2. An office with a sign on the highway. Permitted. Insurance, accounting, title, counseling, a small law office, a real estate team. Convert the house or build new.
3. A restaurant, bar or country store. Permitted. Standard, fast food, take-out only, restaurant-bar and enclosed retail are all by right. So is a commissary kitchen if you cater or run food trucks.
4. A salon, barbershop or studio. Permitted. Personal service and dance, music or art studios are by right, and three acres solves the parking problem those businesses always have.
5. A vet clinic or grooming and boarding shop. Permitted. Overnight boarding is allowed inside a fully enclosed building. A true kennel with outdoor runs overnight is not a C-3 use.
6. A daycare or a church. Permitted. Day care centers and places of worship are both by right, and both need exactly what this property has: acreage, parking and an easy turn in off the highway.
7. A plumbing, electrical or HVAC company. Conditional. Minor construction service needs approval, and your outdoor storage cannot exceed the floor area of your building. Plan to keep the trucks and material inside.
8. Climate-controlled storage buildings. Conditional. Highway 69 North is the road to the lake, and storage demand is real, but it has to be the climate-controlled kind and it has to be approved.
9. Buy it, hold it and let the corridor come to you. Rent the house, use the barn, and let the road do the work. Land banking on a state highway in a growing city is a long game, but it is a real one.
What about a wedding or event venue in the barn? That one is a conversation with the city, not a yes or no. Indoor entertainment and community centers are permitted uses, outdoor entertainment is conditional, and how the city classifies a barn venue depends on the details. Ask before you buy.
Have a use in mind and want to know if it flies? Call or text Mary Anne Williams at 205-454-2979 and we will check it against the table with you before you spend a dollar. See our land and lot page for how we handle acreage.
Does the house have to go?
No, but this is the one part of the deal a buyer needs to get in writing. Under the 2025 ordinance, a detached single-family home is a conditional use in C-3, not a by-right use. The house at 5602 Highway 69 N was built in 1965, long before these rules, so it is almost certainly what the ordinance calls a legal nonconforming use. Article 11 says those may continue. It also puts three limits on them:
You cannot enlarge it. A nonconforming use may not be expanded or extended. Normal maintenance and repair are fine.
Six months vacant and it is gone. If a building occupied by a nonconforming use sits vacant for six straight months, the use has to conform to current zoning after that, no matter what the owner intended. If you buy this and plan to keep the residential option alive, keep it lived in or rented.
Fifty percent damage and it is gone. If the structure is damaged to 50 percent or more of its appraised value, it cannot be rebuilt as a nonconforming use. Under 50 percent, you have six months to start the repair.
The ordinance also says proving the lawful status of a nonconformity is the owner’s job, not the city’s. So the practical answer is: you can live in it or rent it, and you should ask Northport Planning to confirm the status in writing during your due diligence. If you want the residential use to be bulletproof going forward, you can apply for conditional use approval instead.
That still leaves you three doors: live in it, rent it while you design and permit the commercial piece, or convert it. A 1965 ranch with parking in front makes a very good small office, clinic or shop for far less money than new construction.
A look inside the house
Three bedrooms, two and a half baths and about 2,200 square feet, updated and well kept. Whether you plan to live in it, rent it or turn it into an office or a clinic, this is what you are starting with.
See all the photos and full listing details
How much can you build on it?
Table 5-2 sets the C-3 building envelope:
Setbacks. 20 feet front, 20 feet rear, 10 feet on one side and 20 feet for both sides combined. Side setbacks can go to zero by special exception.
Minimum lot. 7,500 square feet with 50 feet of width. At 2.97 acres you are roughly 17 times the minimum, which is why this parcel has options most C-3 lots do not.
Coverage. Maximum impervious surface ratio of 0.80, so up to 80 percent of the site can be building and pavement.
Height. 40 feet, with 75 feet allowed for hotels and more possible through a conditional use request.
One more site cost to plan for: Article 9 requires landscape buffers between a new commercial use and adjoining property, and the buffer gets wider when the neighbor is residential. Buffers cannot be used for parking, and they have to screen from the ground up within a year of planting. On a wooded parcel like this, existing trees often do a lot of that work for you.
Why is the Highway 69 North corridor worth a look right now?
Northport is not standing still, and almost all of its room to grow is north and west of the old city core.
Rooftops keep coming. Developers keep bringing large residential projects to Northport, including the 439-home Townes at North Lake proposal. Whether a single project passes or fails, the pressure behind them is the story.
A $350 million resort is under construction in town. University Beach, the lagoon resort and Marriott Autograph hotel on Highway 82, started horizontal construction in 2026 with key pieces targeted for 2029. That is visitor traffic and jobs Northport has never had.
The city rewrote its rule book. Northport adopted a new zoning ordinance and kept amending it through May 2025, and spent 2026 overhauling permit and zoning fees, which we covered in this post. Cities do that when volume goes up.
The traffic is already there. When ALDOT widened McFarland Boulevard between Highway 69 and Rice Mine Road, it counted more than 50,000 trips a day on that stretch. Highway 69 North is how a big share of that traffic gets home, to the lake and to north Tuscaloosa County.
Commercially zoned land with real frontage on that road is not something the market makes more of. For the wider picture, our Northport guide and the Tuscaloosa County market report are good places to start.
What do the numbers look like?
Here is the property at a glance, straight from the listing and public record:
Address. 5602 Highway 69 N, Northport, AL 35473 (MLS 176653).
Price. $550,000.
Land. About 2.97 acres, zoned C-3, with frontage on Highway 69 North.
Improvements. A 2,200 square foot, three-bedroom, two and a half bath home built in 1965, a large barn and a brick outbuilding.
The math. That works out to roughly $185,000 an acre, and the house, barn and outbuilding come with it. Compare that to bare commercial dirt plus a metal building and the picture gets interesting.
One tax note worth knowing. In Alabama, owner-occupied homes and farms are assessed at 10 percent of value, while most other property, including commercial, is assessed at 20 percent. If you convert a property from a home to a business, the classification can change and the tax bill usually goes up. Build that into your numbers early, not after the first bill lands.
Want to see it in person? Start with the full listing, then call or text Mary Anne Williams at 205-454-2979 or email maryannewilliams@kw.com. If you also need to sell before you buy, start with a free home valuation.
YOUR LISTING AGENTS
Mary Anne Williams and Dan Williams with The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty have the listing at 5602 Highway 69 N. Mary Anne can pull the plat, the tax record and the zoning answers for you, and walk the property with you and your contractor.
Mary Anne Williams · 205-454-2979 · maryannewilliams@kw.com
Dan Williams · 205-292-2108 · DanWilliams@kw.com
What should you check before you write an offer?
Commercially zoned property is bought differently than a house. Work through this list with your agent:
1. Confirm the district and the jurisdiction. Get the zoning in writing from the city, and confirm the parcel is inside the city limits rather than the police jurisdiction. It decides who issues permits and who taxes you.
2. Confirm your use against Table 5-1. Permitted, conditional or prohibited. If it is conditional, ask the city how long the hearing calendar is running and what conditions they typically attach.
3. Get the nonconforming status of the house in writing. Proving it is the owner’s burden, not the city’s, and the six-month vacancy rule is easy to trip over.
4. Check the driveway. Highway 69 is a state route. A new or wider commercial entrance normally needs an ALDOT access permit, and where they let you put it can decide your whole site plan.
5. Check utilities. Water, sewer or septic, power capacity and gas. A septic system sized for a three-bedroom house is not sized for a restaurant or a church.
6. Price the site work. Buffers, parking, lighting and stormwater are real dollars, and the Council can add conditions on all of them if your use is conditional.
7. Survey, flood and easements. Get a current survey. Look for utility easements, drainage and any flood zone that eats into your buildable area.
8. Line up the right loan. Financing land or a business property is not a 30-year fixed mortgage. Expect a larger down payment, a shorter term and a lender who wants your business plan. SBA options exist if you will occupy the property yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still live in a house that is zoned C-3 in Northport?
A detached single-family home is a conditional use in C-3, so a house built before the rules is usually a legal nonconforming use that may continue. It cannot be enlarged, it cannot sit vacant six straight months, and it cannot be rebuilt if it is damaged 50 percent or more. Ask the city to confirm the status in writing, or apply for conditional use approval.
Do I have to rezone the property to open a business?
Not if your use is marked P in the C-3 column. Offices, retail, restaurants, salons, daycares, churches, vet offices and landscaping or janitorial companies are all by right. Only a use that is blank in the C-3 column needs a rezoning.
How does a conditional use permit work in Northport?
You apply with a site plan before applying for a building permit. Adjoining owners are notified by certified mail, the Planning Commission holds a public hearing and sends a recommendation to the City Council within 30 days, and the Council approves, approves with conditions, or denies. Conditions can cover landscaping, buffers, parking, lighting and building materials.
Can I store trucks, trailers, boats or equipment outside on C-3 land?
Not as your main business. Outdoor storage as a principal use is not allowed in C-3, and neither is a major construction service, which is the ordinance’s term for a trade business with outdoor storage. A minor construction service is conditional, and its outdoor storage cannot cover more area than the floor area of the building.
Will my property taxes go up if I turn it into a business?
Probably. Alabama assesses owner-occupied homes and farms at 10 percent of value and most commercial property at 20 percent. Ask the Tuscaloosa County Revenue Commissioner how the parcel would be classified under your plan.
Is commercial land a good investment in Northport?
It depends on the parcel, the price and your timeline, and nobody can promise you a return. What we can say is that Northport keeps growing, frontage on a state highway is finite, and an owner who buys their own building stops paying someone else’s rent. Our investment property page covers how we run those numbers.
Sources
City of Northport Zoning Ordinance, as amended through May 19, 2025 (Article 5 Nonresidential Districts, Table 5-1 Use Regulations, Table 5-2 Area and Dimensional Requirements, Article 9 Landscaping, Article 11 Nonconformities, §12.05 Conditional Uses), available from the City of Northport: Standards and Resources
City of Northport: Planning and Inspections
Listing detail: 5602 Highway 69 N, Northport, AL 35473
Alabama Department of Revenue: Property Tax classifications
The Tuscaloosa Thread: Construction begins on University Beach
Patch: ALDOT improvements at McFarland Boulevard and Highway 69
This article summarizes the Northport Zoning Ordinance as amended through May 19, 2025. It is general information, not legal, tax or engineering advice. Ordinances get amended and every parcel is different. Verify any use, permit or tax question with the City of Northport, ALDOT and your own professionals before you buy.
Thinking about what three commercial acres could do for you?
Mary Anne Williams and Dan Williams with The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty have the listing at 5602 Highway 69 N and can get you the zoning answers before you commit. Reach Mary Anne at 205-454-2979 or maryannewilliams@kw.com, or Dan at DanWilliams@kw.com. No pressure, just straight information.
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