City Council unanimously votes to send downtown zoning plan back to Planning Commission

The proposed rezoning of downtown — developed over the last year after the adoption of the Heart of Homewood master plan — is designed to promote a walkable, compact district with the quaint character merchants and visitors currently enjoy, according to city officials.

The purpose is to “protect our downtown“ and “keep Homewood like it is,” said City Council President Peter Wright at a well-attended public hearing Dec. 9.

However, the plan generated an enormous amount of public comment, much of it skeptical, in November and December.

Many residents and merchants appeared at hearings held by the council and the Homewood Planning Commission to express their fears that the new zoning could put a further strain on parking, create unintended negative outcomes for merchants and property owners and invite developers to destroy the character of downtown — including the much-loved shopping district along 18th Street South — with new multiuse projects.

In response, the Homewood City Council voted unanimously Monday, Dec. 16, to send the plan back to the Planning Commission.

The commission will hold another public hearing on the issue Feb. 4, and the council will take up the rezoning again at a public hearing March 9, according to Wright.

The plan has also been changed in response to the public comment the council has received, according to Wright.

For example, before the Dec. 16 meeting, Susan Henderson of Placemakers LLC — the consulting firm that wrote the proposal — recommended that no residential uses be allowed in the core downtown shopping area on 18th Street South between Oxmoor Road and 28th Avenue South and the stretch of 29th Avenue South between 18th Street South and 19th Street South.

While residential is appropriate in other medium-intensity areas downtown, Placemakers said in a memo to the council that “the historic one- and two-story character” of the shopping district does “warrant protection from overdevelopment.”

All of Henderson’s several suggested changes have been posted at heartofhomewood.com.

The city adopted the Heart of Homewood plan in October 2018 after soliciting public comment and working with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.

Officials said that zoning downtown needed to be updated to facilitate the master plan.

The RPCGB hired Placemakers, a nationally known firm, which produced a report.

Public comment was solicited from April to June 2019, and a final draft of the proposed zoning was submitted in August 2019.

The plan was given a favorable recommendation by the Homewood Planning Commission after a public hearing Nov. 12 by a vote of 3-2 with one abstention.

On Dec. 2, the City Council’s Planning and Development Committee, which is chaired by Councilor Britt Thames, voted 5-0 to send the new zoning — along with some changes already suggested by Henderson — to the full council without recommendation.

The proposed zoning would take the current 13 zoning districts in the downtown area, including six commercial districts, and combine them into three districts.

The three districts would be low intensity (with buildings limited to two stories), medium intensity (with a four-story limit) and high intensity (with a limit of five stories, for buildings such as SoHo, the Aloft hotel and The Valley Hotel).

Henderson said the low-intensity district is meant to serve as a buffer for surrounding neighborhoods.

In his opening remarks prior to the Dec. 9 hearing, Wright said the plan would simplify a “kaleidoscope” of zoning types downtown.

The continued use of the 13 districts “could expose us to problems with developers coming in… and being able to do things legally in our city that nobody wants,” Wright said.

During the hearing, Henderson said the current Homewood zoning — as in many American cities — is based on an outdated model that separated residential and industrial uses.

She said she understood that protecting the unique character of the shopping district along 18th Street South is important to stakeholders.

“We heard it early and we heard it often,” Henderson said, referring to the public comments officials received while drafting the proposal.

However, she said there is “the potential to damage character today” even under the current zoning.

That Dec. 9 hearing lasted more than three hours and attracted at least 250 Homewood residents and business owners to City Hall.

More than 40 residents and business owners spoke. Roughly one-third of them expressed some support for the new zoning. However, a majority of the speakers expressed concerns about the plan.

Several speakers said the proposed change from C4 commercial zoning to mixed-use might draw developers who could destroy the street and force out existing merchants.

“If developers come in, we will not be able to afford to be here,” said one Homewood store owner.

At least two speakers recommended that 18th Street should be designated a historic district with a design review board.

One huge concern expressed was parking, including the number of spaces allotted for The Valley Hotel, which is under construction at the intersection of 18th Street South and 28th Avenue South.

Jennifer Mims, owner of Real and Rosemary restaurant downtown, said that the city needs “a comprehensive solution to parking” before voting on the zoning plan.

Thames told attendees that the “solution to parking does not lie within zoning. We have to be creative.”

“We will create parking spaces where we can, but we need to find innovative solutions to make parking work for merchants,” Thames said.

Councilor Andy Gwaltney said the city seeks to enter into public/private parking agreements with some property owners “so the city can utilize underutilized lots.”

And Thames, at a committee meeting Dec. 2, said that the city had taken steps to create more parking, take inventory of its parking and provide greater parking enforcement.

He also said the city would create a parking management plan — a step strongly recommended by Henderson.

Many of the speakers Dec. 9 asked council members to delay consideration of the plan until after the holidays. After that hearing, the council chose to delay action until Dec. 16.

Henderson, since the Homewood Planning Commission hearing Nov. 12, has suggested a half-dozen changes in the plan.

In addition to suggesting the removal of residential uses from 18th Street South, she recommended the addition of minimum parking requirements appropriate to downtown.

And parcels on the south side of 29th Avenue South between 18th Street South and 19th Street South are to be moved from the high-intensity to medium-intensity district with a two-story height restriction, as on 18th Street South.

To see all the recommended changes to the plan, including those dealing with nonconforming lots, setbacks in some areas and other restrictions, go to heartofhomewoodplan.com and click on “December 12, 2019 Memo from Placemakers to Homewood City Council — Suggested Modifications.”