Homewood GreenSpace Initiative holds public forum on pocket park

Despite dreary conditions from the remnants of Hurricane Irma, Homewood stakeholders packed the large auditorium at Homewood Public Library to discuss trees, parks and how green spaces affect the community.

A majority of the conversation focused on the property currently occupied by the Homewood police headquarters, which will be vacated in the future when the headquarters is moved to a new location. One of the proposed uses is a pocket park to serve the downtown area.

Initiative leader Betsy McGuire said that to her and to many others, the city's proven record of fiscal responsibility and aptitude puts Homewood in a good position to use the property as a pocket park, and that the police headquarters moving brings a unique chance for the city to do something different.

“It gives us opportunities,” she said.

She added that the overall goal is to combat the "graying" of Homewood through continued development.

The first speaker of the evening was Henry Hughes, a former director of Friends of Shades Creek, member of the Homewood Environmental Commission and the current vice president of education at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Hughes discussed the history of the wooded areas of Homewood, listing the many species of trees unique to the area and the importance he and others see in preserving the "wood" in "Homewood."

“Trees literally define Homewood,” he said.

Hughes said he views the potential pocket park as a scaled concept of Central Park in New York City. He said that if he had to guess, the size of Central Park compared to NYC and the size of the proposed park downtown compared to the rest of Homewood would be similar, and that if New York can put a higher value on green space than more buildings, so can Homewood.

“Don’t underestimate the value of a very small park,” he said.

Jane Reed Ross, a senior landscape architect at Goodwyn Mills and Cawood who has worked on projects including Shades Creek Greenway, Homewood Central Park, Rotary trail and more, said she has seen time and time again how green spaces improve quality of life for communities.

“The transformation is amazing,” she said.

Ross said she believes having green spaces promotes well being, builds a sense of community, makes a community safer, promotes active lifestyles, is environmentally sound and can be a major economic driver.

Julie Price with UAB Sustainability concurred and added that even a small park can have a major impact on environmental issues within a city, such as heat, stormwater management and more.

When looking at decisions like building a park, Price said cities around the country, including Birmingham, are using a "triple bottom line" approach, which not only looks at the economic impact of a decision, but at the social and environmental impact as well.

And while foregoing commercial development in the middle of downtown may be hard from a sales tax revenue perspective, it may be beneficial in other ways, she said.

“I don’t think it’s the easiest choice, but maybe it’s the best one,” she said.

The final speaker at the meeting was Lindsay Puckett with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, which is leading the charge on a new master planning process for downtown Homewood.

The Heart of Homewood Plan will look at revitalizing the area of downtown, and part of that process, Puckett said, would be to address the need for green space, trees, walkability and other issues.

Puckett explained that in the coming weeks, the group will be holding public open houses to gather community input as well as administering surveys to establish the ideas, wants, needs and concerns residents and stakeholders have when it comes to downtown Homewood.

More information about the meetings, the plan and the surveys can be found at heartofhomewoodplan.com.