Homewood City Council votes unanimously against downtown rezoning plan

The Homewood City Council voted nearly unanimously against approving the proposed downtown rezoning plan at an Aug. 31 special called council meeting.

All council members voted no, with the exception of John Hardin, who abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest in regards to his employment with Shannon Waltchack.

“I will vote according to my constituents, and I have been told this is not what they want,” said Ward 5 Councilor Jennifer Andress.

Ward 1 Councilor Melanie Geer said she hopes the council learns from the plan’s disapproval by both the council and city residents.

The plan, which has been in the works for about three years and has been sent back and forth from committees to council and discussed at numerous public meetings, is now dead. Any effort to create new zoning for downtown Homewood would have to begin with a clean slate.

“This plan was voted down tonight,” Andress said. “We all heard loud and clear from our constituents that this is not the plan they supported and we voted it down unanimously with one abstention.”

The rezoning would have seen the city’s zoning districts downtown changed from 13 districts to three: low-intensity, medium-intensity and high-intensity. Numerous residents have expressed concerns over commercial encroachment in residential areas and change in building heights in downtown Homewood.

In a nearly four-hour meeting on Aug. 23, several residents made their concerns known to the City Council.

“As a Homewood citizen, I think y’all are trying to change downtown and I think there is another agenda behind it - that’s just my personal belief,” said Bernice Hawkins.

Rev. Edward Steele, pastor of Union Missionary Baptist Church, shared similar concerns. He said Rosedale is already being infringed upon by construction in front of his church and asked city council members to not let it continue. 

“Homewood is a great city,” Steele said. “Rosedale is historic... 133 years. Union 134 years. In the same spot, on the same corner for 134 years and I feel like y’all are trying to push Rosedale out of the way.”

The Homewood Downtown Master Plan had been in development for 33 months after being introduced in 2018. The plan was sent back to the Planning Commission a number of times and has been sent back to Placemakers - a city planning and design firm hired by the city to create the plan - six times.