Planning commission approves rezoning for church lot downtown, new hotel on 280

At the March 3 Planning Commission meeting, five items were approved, including the rezoning of a lot for Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church and a final development plan for a new hotel on U.S. 280.

OLS Church requested the rezoning of 2927 Central Ave. from C-1 Office Building District to I-2 Institutional District to permit the development of a parking lot adjacent to the church. The lot is the former location of an office building that has been demolished.

“The church purchased the hope to build surface parking out there to further alleviate the parking issues that can happen,” said Chris Eckroate, who represented OLS Catholic Church at the meeting.

The lot will be open for public use when not being used by the church, Eckroate said.

The commission then approved the final development plan for a new Residence Inn Hotel to be located at 2796 U.S. 280, which is next to Bricktop’s and is the former site of the Mountain Brook Inn.

Brett Kornegay with Gonzalez-Strength and Associates represented the applicant, AUM Enterprises, at the meeting. He said the property is 2.6 acres. 

The proposed hotel will be six floors and approximately 88,000 square feet, he said. It will have one way in and one way out — he said there won’t be any rear entrances or exits.

Also approved at the meeting were three resurvey requests: 

Lot lines at 525, 527 and 529 Oxmoor Road were moved to combine three lots into two lots 

A lot line at 1313 and 1401 Rosedale Drive was moved to add property from one lot to the other 

A parcel at 1035 and 1045 Broadway Park was subdivided into two lots to facilitate retail and office development

The Homewood Planning Commission will hold its next regular meeting April 7 at City Hall.