Hanceville Land Clearing & Home Sites
Small tracts around Wallace State, pasture and hardwood acreage off Highway 91, and land running down toward the Mulberry Fork. Suttles & Sons gets it opened up and ready for a house, a shop or a long stone lane.
A college town with acreage on every side of it
Hanceville sits on US 31 in the southeast part of Cullman County, about 9 miles south of Cullman and about 8 miles east of I-65. Wallace State Community College, opened in 1966, is a cornerstone of the local economy, and the edges of town keep drawing interest from people wanting a house near it. A lot of land questions here turn into the same two: is this tract in the city, and what does the city want before the dirt moves?
The ground changes more than people expect. Land near the college sits around 600 feet of elevation, and pasture and hardwood places out off Highway 91 run closer to 870. Underneath is the Pottsville Formation, sandstone and shale in layers, getting thicker toward the south end of the county. About two thirds of the county’s runoff heads for the Mulberry Fork along the southeast line, and the Duck River empties into the Fork near Hanceville. These acid soils erode easily once the cover comes off, so how you open a slope matters as much as how fast.
What grows here
Established pasture and mature hardwoods on a lot of the acreage listed off Highway 91 and the county roads, with timber on the back sides and brush taking over whatever sits unused.
What the ground does
Gentle sandy loam on some tracts north of town, sandstone and shale underneath. Open slopes wash easily until something covers them again.
Common jobs here
House sites near the college, part of a pasture tract opened up for a home and shop, and long stone lanes back from the county road.
What Hanceville land tends to need
Highway 91 runs through Colony, Hanceville and Holly Pond, and US 31 heads south to Garden City and the county line. We quote along both.
House sites near town and the college
Trees and brush off the lot, the pad area cut and filled to the builder’s plan, and a way in for the builder’s trucks. Inside city limits, the building permit comes first.
Pasture and hardwood acreage off Highway 91
Opening the part of a tract you plan to use and leaving the hardwoods you mark. Brush and tops get ground up on site, not piled and burned.
Long chert and gravel lanes
A house set well back from a county road needs a lane that holds up. We build it up with a crown and bring the chert and gravel in our own trucks.
Fill dirt in, spoil out
Fill dirt to bring up a low corner of a pad, gravel for the lane, and spoil from a cut that has to leave the property. Our dump trucks run both directions.
The work
Nothing on this page is stock. These are Suttles & Sons’ own trucks and work, the same outfit that takes on hardwood lots and sandstone and shale country around Hanceville.
Red dump truck on graded ground with an excavator behind it.
White and yellow dump truck tipping a load on a wide red dirt site.
Red dump truck unloading dirt on a grassy site.
Hanceville wants the permit before the earthwork, not after
A 2018 change to Hanceville’s zoning ordinance requires a city building permit before any construction starts, and local reporting at the time said that includes preparatory earthwork. Settle it at City Hall on Main Street before a pad gets cut, and ask if the wording has changed since. The city also has a planning commission and a zoning map. Land being brought into the city goes through annexation and rezoning at the council.
Outside the limits, we found no posted Cullman County land disturbance rule, so the first call on a pipe in a road ditch is the county road department. Entrances on US 31 or Highway 91 generally go through ALDOT.
One acre is the state number to remember. Disturb that much, or be part of a bigger plan that adds up to it, and ADEM’s construction stormwater permit comes into play. We tell you what we know applies when we quote, and that permit stays in the owner’s name unless we work something else out.
Why two Hanceville lots can price differently
No two tracts here quote alike. These four things do most of the separating.
In the city or out
A lot inside the limits can mean a building permit and a zoning check before we start. That affects the schedule more than the machine work.
Mature hardwoods
Big hardwoods take far more machine time than pasture growth, and the number you want left standing changes the pace.
Length of the lane
Every extra stretch back from the county road means more base, more stone and more loads.
Fall toward the creeks
Steeper ground dropping to a creek or the Mulberry Fork gets opened slower, because these soils wash once the cover is gone.
Around Hanceville and across the county line
Beyond Hanceville we take jobs in Garden City, Dodge City, Colony, Holly Pond and Berlin. Cullman is about 9 miles up US 31, and that is where we are based.
Asked about Hanceville land
What will it run me to clear a lot in Hanceville?
Nobody can give you an honest number without seeing it. Size, tree size, slope and whether you need a house pad or just open ground all count. Text photos and a map pin to (256) 735-3214 and you get a quote for that property.
Do you burn what you clear, or haul it off?
No burn piles. Brush and trees get mulched right there on the ground. Anything that truly has to leave, like dirt spoil from a pad cut, goes out in our own dump trucks.
We bought this place for the hardwoods. Can you keep them?
Yes. Walk it first and tape the ones that stay, and we clear around them. A picture of how you marked them helps us quote it right.
Do I need a city permit before you start dirt work?
Inside Hanceville limits, plan on it. The council's 2018 ordinance change, as reported at the time, requires a city building permit before construction, including preparatory earthwork. Confirm the current process with City Hall. An acre or more of disturbance can also bring in ADEM's stormwater permit, and we point out what we know applies when we quote.
My land is just outside the city limits. Does that change anything?
It can. Find out which side of the line you are on first. If you plan to split the tract, ask the city's planning commission too, since Alabama law can stretch that kind of authority past the limits. Land coming into the city goes through annexation and rezoning, so the line does matter.
I am looking at river land on the Mulberry Fork. Anything to check first?
Legal access. River tracts can come with no legal easement, leaving the buyer to get one. We can build an access road, but it needs a legal way in before it needs a machine.
Can you run a stone lane back to a house site off Highway 91?
Yes. We install chert and gravel driveways and the culvert at the entrance together. A state route entrance generally goes through ALDOT, so we bring that up before anything gets ordered.
Will a few phone pictures get me a quote?
Most of the time. Get the thickest spots, your road frontage and a map pin. If we need to walk it before we can price it, we will tell you.
Clearing and site work around Hanceville
Land clearing in Hanceville, Alabama from Suttles & Sons covers the whole run from standing timber to a lane you can drive: clearing, forestry mulching, house pads, chert driveways, culverts and the trucks to haul it.
Read how home site prep, forestry mulching and fill and gravel hauling jobs get planned, or see every town on the service area list.
We price each tract on its own, and the estimate is free. Call or text (256) 735-3214.
Send us your Hanceville tract
A map pin, a few photos and whether the land is inside the city limits is enough to get started. Kalob will give you a straight answer on what it takes.
Request an estimate
Photos help most. Text them to (256) 735-3214 after you send this.