Islamic Academy rezoning tabled

The City Council held a public hearing on Dec. 1 about rezoning the property at 2501, 2513 and 2517 18th St. S. to Institutional District, but ultimately decided to delay making a decision. The Islamic Academy of Alabama owns the property and wants to build additional parking and a playground, with a buffer area between the property and the road.

Joseph Miller III represented the school during the hearing and said the rezoning is needed because the school plans to resurvey its property and make it one large lot. Ward 5 Place 2 Representative Peter Wright asked about remediation plans for the school’s previous attempt to build a parking lot, which was done without permits and resulted in damage to the cliff edge of 18th Street South. Miller replied that there had not yet been remediation, but the rezoning issue under discussion was an attempt to “basically start over and build the parking lots correctly.”

Some confusion also arose over the property’s right-of-way, as Miller believed that the city of Homewood owned it and the council believed it belonged to ALDOT. Director of Engineering, Planning and Zoning Greg Cobb spoke up, saying that ALDOT had claimed to give the right-of-way to the city, but Homewood had no record of this.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got two problems that are not resolved, and I don’t see how we can move forward until those are resolved,” Wright said.

Council chairman Bruce Limbaugh closed the public hearing and decided to continue the issue until the problems of right-of-way ownership and the school’s cliff edge remediation could be resolved. The item was also sent back to the planning and development committee, but the committee did not discuss the issue at its Dec. 8 meeting.