Standing-room-only crowd supports downtown pocket park

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Homewood's city council chambers ran out of room on Monday night as residents filled the seats and most of the available standing room to support the idea of a park on the current police headquarters site downtown.

A group of residents began an effort to create the pocket park over the summer in response to the high amount of streets, sidewalks and other hard surfaces covering downtown Homewood. The police headquarters at 1833 29th Ave. S. will be vacated when a new headquarters is built on Bagby Drive, and the greenspace initiative is intended to replace the building with a small park rather than selling or leasing the property to a business.

The movement has gained traction online and through meetings in each ward of the city, culminating in the crowd at tonight's meeting.

“I would just simply say there’s great care, there’s great love for this city amongst these folks,” said Rick Batson, one of two men who spoke for the crowd. He added that he feels the city has been "asleep at the wheel a little bit" in regard to development of the downtown area and allowing too much "gray" and too little "green."

Batson, a Hallman Hill resident, is among those who believe a park would be a quality-of-life improvement as well as a potential attractor for shoppers and diners at Homewood's businesses. Final plans for the property have not been decided, but using the land for new business has been discussed as a potential addition to downtown shopping as well as sales and property tax.

The initiative's request is that the council waits to sell or lease the land until citizens can develop an alternative plan and have time to comment on their options. They said that they have identified a plan to purchase the lot for its full appraisal price and take care of ongoing maintenance, though no specifics were given as to how this would be accomplished.

“It’s our living room and we appreciate it for that,” Batson said.

Council President Bruce Limbaugh said decisions about the police property will be part of the master planning process for the downtown area. This, he said, is where the greenspace initiative should start.

After the meeting, Ward 1 Representative Britt Thames said the master planning committee has begun meeting and has launched its website and social media accounts. The website includes a survey, maps and other information. The whole planning process will take about a year, Thames said. The first public involvement meeting has been scheduled for Sept. 26, from 5 to 7 p.m., at Homewood City Hall's council chambers.

Limbaugh and Thames both said the idea of having a buyer for the property at full value increased their interest in the feasibility of the pocket park.

After the pocket park presentation, the crowds at the city council meeting thinned considerably. The council also:

  • Heard the mayor's first draft of the 2017-2018 budget.
  • Approved a new ordinance changing the parking time limit for the SoHo public surface lot to three hours.
  • Approved an additional $7,500 in funding for landscaping at Servis1st's new headquarters in Rosedale.
  • Rejected a front yard wall variance for 120 West Glenwood Drive. The owner had built the wall without applying for proper permits. Despite her presentations about the value of the wall in preventing erosion, as well as not knowing about the permit rules until after work had begun, the council voted unanimously to reject the request. Ward 4 Representative Barry Smith said she was concerned approval of the variance after the fact would set a precedent for future homeowners.
  • Approved work in the city right-of-way at 3 Ventura Ave. to move a light pole into the ALDOT right-of-way near Montgomery Highway, in order to make way for a new home's driveway.
  • Set a Sept. 11 public hearing to add the 800-square-foot minimum dwelling size back into the Neighborhood Preservation District.
  • Set Sept. 11 public hearings for sign ordinance variances at 824 Green Springs Highway, 428 Green Springs Highway, 22 Green Springs Highway, 279 Lakeshore Parkway and 1920 19th Street South, as well as a fence ordinance variance at 112 Hollywood Boulevard.
  • Carried over discussion of a final development plan for a hotel on 18th Street South until the public hearing for the property rezoning, on Sept. 11.
  • Declared miscellaneous parks department furniture and equipment as surplus.
  • Referred a one-time lump sum funding request to the finance committee as part of their upcoming budget hearings.
  • Dropped a sign ordinance variance request at 1 Independence Drive.