Council approves zoning changes, plans for more

The Homewood City Council approved a series of changes to the city zoning ordinances at its Aug. 13 meeting, and council members plan to discuss more changes in the near future.

The changes approved include:

• Remove specifications stating that masonry or concrete fences are not allowed. However, the commission decided to consider wording that would include all acceptable fencing types, rather than leaving it open to interpretation.
• Return corner house lots to being considered as two front property lines, instead of one front and one side property line, due to issues with setbacks from the street.
• Amend the definition of a story for accessory structure height measurement. A story is measured as the upper surface of one floor to the next, a basement area if its ceiling is more than 4.5 feet above grade or an area under the roof if it has at least 8 feet of head clearance in at least 50 percent of the floor area. These measurements are only used in limiting accessory structure height, as houses are measured from threshold to roof peak without regard for stories.
• Houses cannot be closer to the front property line than any other house within 100 feet on the same side of the street, and never closer than 25 feet. This is a reduction from the previous measurement, which compared a home’s position to other houses on either side of the street within 250 feet. Houses also can’t be further away from the front property line than the average in that same radius, plus 10 percent. The goal of this is to produce general consistency in where homes are located on lots.
• Add tobacco and vape shops to accepted uses in the C-3 Community Shopping District zone, and remove them, as well as bridal shops, from accepted businesses in Mixed Use Districts.
• If a property is nonconforming to its zoning or has an ordinance, the variance approval will “expire” if the property is vacant more than six months.

The change regarding corner lots drew the most conversation from council members. Building, Engineering and Zoning Department employee Greg Cobb said this change reverts the city zoning code to the way it operated up until a few years ago and, in the case of subdividing lots, would prevent houses from being built facing away from the rest of the houses on the street.

Ward 1 Representative Britt Thames said this change would mean more cases coming before the Board of Zoning Adjustments for variance requests, which raised concerns for BZA members. However, Cobb said the zoning change would affect relatively few lots, most of which have already been subdivided, and the city operated this way for about 30 years.

The council voted to approve these changes with the intention to continue discussing them and other proposed changes with the BEZ Department and the Planning Commission, which had previously approved the changes presented tonight.

The Planning Commission has also looked at the total percentage of a property that can be covered by hard surfaces as another potential change to the zoning book.

The council also:

• Approved the creation of a cooperative district with the cities of Mountain Brook and Birmingham and Jefferson County for the Hollywood Pedestrian Bridge project.
• Approved work within the city engineering budget — about $26,000 — to commission Walter Schoel Engineering to study and provide recommendations for flooding issues on Bonita Drive, Lancaster Road and Huntington Road.
• Approved a right turn only sign and crosswalk at Drake Street and Oxmoor Road.
• Approved Trustmark National Bank, 1808 29th Ave. S., to remove and replace sidewalk in front of its building and replace a tree as part of work on a deteriorating water line.
• Approved curb and sidewalk repairs at 1914 28th Ave. S., with the property owner paying around $38,000 of the work and the city paying almost $14,000.
• Approved a restaurant liquor license for Ash Restaurant, 703 and 705 Oak Grove Road.
• Voted to drop discussion of speed humps on Berry Road with the intent to return them to the road. The vote was 9-1, with Ward 2 Representative Mike Higginbotham voting “no” and Ward 3 Representative Walter Jones absent.
• Asked the mayor to consider a total of $50,000 for citywide tree planting, with $14,500 of that rolling over from the current fiscal year, for consideration in the 2018-19 budget.
• Carried over discussion of a sign ordinance variance for the KFC at 828 Green Springs Highway, to see if the franchise would consider a proffer to replace its pole sign with an awning sign as part of renovations to the building.
• Dropped public hearings for zoning changes to minimum side building setbacks and ground coverage on properties, though these will be discussed by the planning and development committee.

The following public hearings have been set for Aug. 27:

• A fence ordinance variance request at 300 Mecca Ave.
• Sign ordinance variance requests at 201 Green Springs Highway, 215 Green Springs Highway, 308 Oxmoor Road and 428 Green Springs Highway.
• Public nuisance hearings due to excessive growth at 1575 Valley View Circle, 218 Summit Parkway and 1117 Hardwick Lane.