Council denies two rezoning requests
Two developers will need to go back to the drawing board after last night’s council meeting.
The Homewood City Council denied two rezoning requests at its May 11 meeting. One request was for the purpose of redeveloping an Oxmoor Road house into an office space for Riverbrook Design & Construction. The other was a request that would turn a former commercial lot into a surface parking lot for Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
The rezoning request from Riverbrook Design & Construction was met with controversy when it was brought to City Council in February after a 7-0 unfavorable recommendation from the Planning Commission. The house, located across the street from the Exceptional Foundation at 1619 Oxmoor Road, is currently zoned as R-5, Attached Dwelling District. Under the property’s current zoning, property owner Kevin Misso said he could potentially develop a multifamily unit there.
To redevelop the property for the construction business he owns with his wife, Leigh, the Missos would have needed the Council to approve their request to rezone the property to C-1c — this would be a commercial zone with proffers. For example, one of the conditions the Missos made was that they and future owners could not build out of the house’s current footprint.
Although Kevin said he found many neighbors in support of the development, other council members said they heard from neighbors close to the property who were against the rezoning. The council members unanimously voted against the rezone.
"While we were very hopeful and excited about locating our corporate offices to 1619 Oxmoor Road, we are supportive of the decision reached by our city council leadership," Kevin said.
The other rezoning request that failed — for the potential Our Lady of Sorrows Church parking lot at 2927 Central Ave. — had a 6-0 favorable recommendation from the Planning Commission at its March 3 meeting. The lot is the former location of an office building that has been demolished.
The church purchased the lot last year with the hope to eventually develop it into a parking lot, said Chris Eckroate, who represented OLS Church at the council meeting.
“We have a real issue on Sundays with a lot of folks getting into a little parking lot,” Eckroate said.
Development plans that Eckroate brought to the meeting show 42 spaces in the potential lot.
The property sits on one of the city’s most beautiful thoroughfares, said Councilman Andy Gwaltney. The property is a short walk away from Homewood Central Park, and Central Avenue has tree-lined medians throughout the road.
“So the use as a parking lot just doesn’t strike me as the appropriate use,” Gwaltney said. “Taking up another piece of prime real estate in the city for parking I just don’t think is the appropriate measure. There has to be other solutions they can explore.”
The rezoning request failed 5-4 with two abstentions.
The council also set a public hearing for June 8 to discuss a Lutheran church’s plans to develop an office building on its property.
The next council meeting has been moved to May 18 because of the Memorial Day holiday. The City Council will hold both committee meetings and the City Council meeting that night.