A look ahead: Heart of Homewood project to be released in fall

A cohesive plan for the future of downtown Homewood will be published this fall when the “Heart of Homewood” master planning process wraps up.

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.

Through an online survey with 470 respondents and an open house in September, the Heart of Homewood planning group identified several priorities among residents: sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping, green space and parking.

Residents also placed markers on physical and online maps for the exact locations they would like to see these amenities.

This feedback was aggregated and released to the public at the end of October. At the time, the planning group said it will be in the “public visioning and recommendation forum” stage until about February. There will be another public involvement meeting in early 2018, City Planner Vanessa McGrath said.

They intend 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.

Updates about the master planning process and a copy of the full results from the public feedback session are available atheartofhomewoodplan.com.