Downtown Master Plan visual preferences survey now open

The master plan committee for Homewood's downtown commercial area has opened a new survey seeking residents' opinions on the types of developments and appearance of buildings downtown.

The Heart of Homewood project started in 2017 to map the future of the downtown area. This includes businesses from Rosedale Drive and Vulcan Park on the north side to Oxmoor Road on the south, with U.S. 31 and Central Avenue as the eastern and western borders, respectively.

The committee so far has used a public forum and online surveys to gather feedback on what Homewood citizens want to see downtown.

The new visual preferences survey asks residents to rate the types of developments they would like to see, such as multi-use or townhomes, and choose between sample pictures of what those types of developments would look like. The pictures are not associated with definite plans for the area, but rather are representations that will help the committee gauge what residents do and do not want to see.

The survey will close Jan. 31, and Lindsay Puckett of the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham said the Heart of Homewood committee is planning two more surveys in the near future.

The committee intends to draft an initial master plan from March to June, with adoption of the final plan and beginning of the zoning update process by September. The timeline projects drafting the zoning update by November, with public adoption and approval in December.

Take the visual preferences survey at heartofhomewood.metroquest.com or at heartofhomewood.com.