Photo by Jesse Chambers
Homewood Planning Commission 7-10-18
As Homewood Planning Commission members confer in background, Commission planner Fred Goodwin answers a question from city resident Liz Ellaby regarding an agenda item on July 10, 2018.
The Homewood Planning Commission, at its meeting for Tuesday, July 10, voted 7-0 to approve plans by Trinity United Methodist Church to construct a detached storage building on the southern portion of its West Homewood Campus at 914 Oak Grove Road.
The Commission voted 7-0 to approve the building after a Trinity representative at the meeting agreed that the church would add some additional landscaping behind the new building to provide a visual buffer for neighborhood residents.
This came after Diane Lee, a resident of 108 Edgemont Drive, expressed concerns about the visual impact of the proposed building. “My concern is whether it’s going to be nice aesthetically,” she said.
Lee also had questions about the placement of the building on the church property near her backyard. “There so much land around Trinity, I don't understand why that’s the only place to put it,” she said.
The Trinity representative said this was the only feasible location on the campus to place the storage building, which he said the church “is in dire need of.”
He said that the chosen site is flat, is accessible to the church parking lot and should have no drainage issues.
The building, a prefabricated metal structure, will measure 24 feet by 50 feet and will be approximately nine feet tall to the peak of the roof, according to the representative.
Commission Chairman Billy Higginbotham said the commission typically requires a 10-foot landscaping buffer.
In approving the church’s request, the commission required Trinity to provide the landscaping directly behind the new storage building only -- not along the entire property line.
Other business
- The Commission voted 7-0 to approve a request by property owners Elizabeth and John Montgomery to combine two parcels into one at 319 & 321 Gran Avenue.
- Members voted to delay -- until their next meeting -- the appointment of a nominating committee for election of a chairman and vice chairman, at the request of Commission member James Riddle. The officers, when elected, will serve annual terms beginning in September.
- At the suggestion of Commission planner Fred Goodwin, members also voted to delay until the next meeting consideration of an amendment to the zoning guidelines for the development of lots in a Neighborhood Preservation Districts that had been previously referred to a subcommittee.
- Goodwin said that it had been difficult to schedule a meeting of the subcommittee, in part due to the July 4 holiday, and that the commission was still receiving public comment on the matter that subcommittee members will need time to digest.
