Residents, business owners oppose church at Linden Avenue

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In a May 11 public hearing, the city council heard from multiple residents opposed to rezoning a property on Linden Avenue for use by Cathedral Church of the Advent.

The property, located at 2814 Linden Avenue, is currently zoned for business use. The church wants to use it as a satellite location for an estimated regular crowd of around 100 people. Many local residents and business owners, including representatives from Soca Clothing, Pure Barre, SoHo Retro and Momma Goldberg’s, spoke about problems this would create with parking and traffic congestion in the area.

Most who opposed the rezoning clarified that they supported the goals of the church, just not its chosen location. Kevin McCain of Homewood Toy and Hobby expressed concerns that church attendees would take parking spaces meant for employees and customers in the lot behind his store and the Wells Fargo lot, for which the church has off-hours use. If the church grows in membership, this would only increase the problems.

“We want whoever moves in to fit in such a way that their success doesn’t hurt their neighbors,” McCain said. He brought a petition with signatures from 120 people opposing the rezoning.

Four people spoke in favor of approval, stating that the church in its current location has not had an impact on traffic due to its irregular hours. They also stated that its attendees would be likely to shop and dine at neighboring businesses before and after services.

Ward 1 Place 2 Representative Britt Thames and Ward 3 Place 2 Representative Walter Jones both said that parking is a larger issue that is being studied now, and they are open to working with the community on solutions.

The rezoning issue was carried over until the council’s next meeting.

Other council business included:

  • Approval of an amendment to the sign ordinance banning all new digital billboards from being allowed in the city limits. Three residents spoke in favor of this, with two mentioning their concerns about mobile advertisements, both digital and traditional. Council President Bruce Limbaugh said the city will look at options about this form of advertising.
  • Approving rezoning of the Southern Progress property at 2100 Lakeshore Drive from Planned Office to Institutional District. This allows Samford University to use the buildings for its College of Health Sciences.
  • Banning parking within 50 feet of the East Edgewood Drive/Roseland Drive intersection.
  • Approving an event license for JoJo’s on Broadway, located at 903 Broadway Street, to host its third annual Crawfish Boil on May 30.
  • Annexing the property at 1616 Forest Ridge Road into the city limits.
  • Sending discussion of an incentive plan for Oak and Raleigh, a proposed restaurant on Oak Grove Road, back to the finance committee.
  • Approving an ordinance to assess and collect ad valorem taxes, as well as a homestead exemption for existing ad valorem taxes.
  • Carrying over discussion of a pavement management system because the city is waiting on grant information from the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.
  • Approving Freedom Probation Services to replace Judicial Correction Services as the provider of probation services for the municipal court.
  • Approving amendments to the 2014-2015 budget’s general and special revenue funds.
  • Sending a request for a franchise and right-of-way agreement with Southern Light, a fiber network company, back to the finance committee. The city is waiting on paperwork from the company.
  • Dropping a request from Windstream KDL for a franchise and right-of-way agreement to provide fiber Internet services to Samford University. This was dropped because discussions between the university and company have not completed.