Council to vote on 9-year Samford agreement Aug. 26

Samford University and the Homewood City Council's planning and development committee discussed a revised draft of an agreement for residential property purchase and maintenance at Monday night's committee meetings.

The revisions, Ward 4 Councilor Alex Wyatt said, came out of the community meeting and last committee discussion on the agreement, where residents shared their concerns about Samford's ability to purchase nearby homes. Those worries include potential future expansion of the campus, rezoning homes away from residential use, maintenance of the properties, the impact on home value and the lack of property tax paid, as educational institutions are exempted by state and federal law.

“Samford has made some big strides in trying to address those concerns,” Wyatt said.

The latest draft extends the agreement from five to nine years. Within that time, the university can purchase new homes but cannot make rezoning requests to take them out of Neighborhood Preservation District residential zoning. These homes house faculty, staff and occasional student employees, Samford Executive Vice President Buck Brock has previously told the city.

In response to resident concern about being unfairly targeted for purchase, Wyatt said the new agreement removes any geographic limitations on where Samford can buy properties.

After a tour of Samford-owned properties with City Council members, Wyatt said the university has offered to create a plan for ongoing maintenance, including landscaping, sod work, painting, pressure washing and roof replacements. Brock said nine of those homes were already planned to receive a new roof.

The tour turned up a few projects needed to spruce up the appearance of the homes, which Wyatt said were overall in “fairly good shape,” and in the future the city can request to inspect the properties again as desired.

Brock said the university plans to keep its properties consistent with the neighborhood in terms of appearance.

The agreement also includes a system to work with the city to get permission for trimming trees on any city-owned property. The city will look at creating a small pocket park on university-owned property on Saulter Road for the 2019-2020 fiscal year's budget.

Ward 3 Councilor Walter Jones re-introduced the subject of alternative compensation for the lack of property tax revenue from these homes, which are covered by city emergency services and the Homewood school system for any families with children living there. Jones said other cities with universities often have "considerations for what that cost is” through payment agreements.

However, Brock chose instead to focus on the ways Samford has helped the school system, through hosting events and providing additional parking during construction, rather than get "in the weeds" on a payment agreement.

“I’d like to think that the relationship that Samford and the city have is such that it doesn’t get down to where we’re counting nickels and dimes and quid pro quo,” he said.

The residents who spoke at Monday's committee meeting still said they were concerned that having university-owned homes next door drives down the value of the neighborhood and leaves them open to future expansion if the university wants a different use for those properties.

While a nearby homeowner said more should be done to prevent Samford buying more homes, which he described as permanently damaging the character of the neighborhood, Ward 4 Councilor Barry Smith said the city cannot regulate private owners who choose to sell to Samford. This agreement, she said, is an attempt to limit those sales and their negative impact.

The planning and development committee sent the agreement out to the full City Council for a vote, but it will not be acted on until Aug. 26, as several councilors will be absent on Aug. 12.

Also on Monday, residents on Huntington Road came to the special issues committee seeking a solution to trash being piled on the curb across the street, from houses on Lancaster Road.

Homeowners said open trash cans, bags of trash, boxes, Styrofoam and even construction debris are often left on the curb for several days at a time. As the curb is on the rear side of the Lancaster houses, they said it seems to be an "out of sight, out of mind" issue and the trash might not pile up so much if it was in front of the homes.

The city's trash pickup ordinance states that trash and recycling must be put out on the street, but it does not specify whether residents must use a front or back street if they have access to both. However, the special issues committee decided to have the public works department send a letter to Lancaster residents asking them to move their trash to the front of their homes and not leave it for multiple days.

The committee also discussed putting up "No Dumping" signs, which note the city's $500 fine, in an effort to deter contractors from leaving debris from projects on the street curb.

The special issues committee plans to revisit the issue in the future to see if these have been effective.