HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The family behind southeast Huntsville's busy Valley Bend at Jones Farm shopping center is proposing to build a high-end neighborhood right next door.

Brothers-in-law John Blue and Peter Lowe hope to start construction later this year on Lendon, a 68-acre project that Blue considers a template for future development of scenic Jones Valley.

Plans call for as many as 250 homes of varying sizes and styles, boutique shopping, outdoor cafes, a large clubhouse that doubles as a bed and breakfast for out-of-town guests, and narrow streets to encourage walking - all bordering city-owned Jones Farm Park.

Blue said the mix of uses is designed to evoke the feel of downtown Huntsville.

"If downtown appeals to you, then I think Lendon will appeal to you, because that's the model," he told The Times last week.

Before the bulldozers roll, the city has to agree to rezone the property from multi-family residential to Planned Unit Development - a flexible zoning classification being used by the developers of the Village of Providence.

The Huntsville Planning Commission approved the Lendon rezoning last month and recommended that the City Council do the same.

A public hearing has been scheduled for the council's June 28 meeting.

Lendon - the name is a tribute to the developers' late fathers, Len Lowe and Don Blue - is earmarked for a large field between Valley Bend and the Brookdale Place senior living community.

The site is one of the last remnants of sprawling Jones Farm on the Valley Bend side of Carl T. Jones Drive.

Blue, whose wife, Carolyn, is the younger daughter of the late Carl T. Jones, said the family has no immediate plans to develop roughly 1,000 acres of pasture land on the north side of the road.

"It's not going to be in our lifetime or our kids' lifetimes that the farm will be absorbed," he said Tuesday.

Lowe is married to Jones' other daughter, Betsy.

Architecture and history buffs, Blue and Lowe spent four years laboring over design plans for Lendon. Blue estimates it will cost $5 million just to install the streets, sidewalks, utilities, landscaping and other infrastructure.

The biggest challenge may be turning what is now a stagnant, weed-filled drainage ditch into a charming canal lined with shops, cafes and people.

"We want to make it an amenity rather than an eyesore," Blue said.

Members of the South Huntsville Civic Association recently got a sneak peek at the architectural drawings for Lendon.

Jeannee Gannuch, the association's president, left the meeting "absolutely thrilled" and said she hopes the neighborhood lures more young families into the Grissom High School district.

Gannuch pointed out that the property could be turned into rows of apartments under the current zoning.

"To me, we're being given a gift with this development," she said Wednesday, "rather than having 900 apartments slapped in the middle of Jones Valley."

Mayor Tommy Battle signaled his support for the project Thursday, saying that Lendon's "live-work-play" concept is succeeding in Providence, downtown Huntsville and other places.

The positive early reaction to Lendon is in sharp contrast to the uproar that accompanied construction of Valley Bend at Jones Farm in 2001. Carl T. Jones' son, Raymond, oversaw that project, but Blue and Lowe also were involved.

Some nearby residents worried that the Target-anchored shopping center would aggravate flooding on Aldridge Creek. Others lamented the loss of green space in the valley.

Lendon appears to be getting a much warmer reception from Jones Valley residents.

Only two people spoke against the project at last month's Planning Commission meeting, citing concerns about increased traffic on Garth and Four Mile Post roads.

Lendon's main entrance will be off Carl T. Jones Drive, but there will be two smaller entrances on Garth Road and another on Four Mile Post.

City engineers decided that a traffic light would be needed only at the Carl T. Jones Drive entrance.

One of the Garth Road entrances to Lendon would be directly across from Margaret Craig's driveway. She predicts people will have a tough time pulling out of the neighborhood because of a blind spot caused by a hill and curve.

"I really think there's going to be a problem with visibility," Craig said Wednesday. "There are also quite a few cyclists on this road.

"To me, it's a recipe for disaster."

Even so, Craig called the architectural drawings of Lendon "lovely" and said that the neighborhood will probably make her home more valuable.

Blue and Lowe have teamed up on a number of previous residential projects, including the Jones Valley Gardens neighborhood and Lincoln Square condominiums downtown. Blue separately developed The Ledges golf course community atop Huntsville Mountain.

"One of our goals when we do something on the farm is to make the remaining property we have more desirable," Lowe said. "You can build the wrong thing and hurt the value of what we already have there."

Lendon will include a wide mix of housing styles - carriage houses, garden cottages, brownstones, manor houses and estates - based on traditional Southern architecture.

It won't be a cheap place to live: Blue estimated construction costs at $175-$200 per square foot. That works out to $350,000-$400,000 for a 2,000-square-foot home.

Blue said some homes will accommodate large families. But Lendon also is being built, in part, to satisfy empty nesters and recent retirees looking to downsize. About 40 percent of the homes will be cottages with the main living area on the ground floor and space for guests upstairs.

"They want less to look after with smaller lots," Lowe said.

Gannuch, the South Huntsville Civic Association leader, said people who want Jones Valley to remain unchanged need to understand that the farm is the Jones family's land and livelihood.

"I love the greenspace," she said, "but I think we all have to understand that we're just along for the ride."