Council to consider removing multifamily use, other changes to West Homewood District zoning

by

Homewood City Council's planning and development committee discussed a number of changes to the West Homewood District zoning on June 17 that would make the district more similar to the city's other zonings.

That includes removing multifamily housing as an accepted use in the district — except in mixed-use developments with a commercial first floor — and giving the City Council more control in the approval process. As it currently stands, all developments in the West Homewood District go solely to the Planning Commission for approval.

The West Homewood District is a stretch of properties along Oak Grove Road, and the zoning codes include form-based regulations of use, building height, property line setbacks and other factors to promote urban design and walkability.

The recent approval of a townhome development at the intersection of Raleigh Avenue prompted residents and Ward 2 councilors to question why multifamily housing is an accepted use and why the district, unlike all other zones of the city, does not fall under the City Council's jurisdiction.

“I think it makes sense for it to go through the same process that everything else does,” Ward 2 Councilor Andrew Wolverton said.

Ward 2 Councilor Mike Higginbotham brought an edited copy of the code to the planning and development committee. He said he copied the mixed-use district's wording on approval requirements, which go through the council, and he took out uses “which don’t make sense to me,” including all multifamily that is not part of a mixed-use project.

Higginbotham and Wolverton also requested a resolution of discrepancies between different parts of the code as to which parcels fall under the zoning, with the addition of an appendix outlining the boundaries of the zoning. They made no changes to the form-based section of the codes, regulating height, setback and other design standards.

As the city has put a 120-day moratorium in place on construction in the district, Wolverton said they were trying to streamline the most urgent changes needed. The City Council will have to vote to send the changes to the Planning Commission for approval, after which the code will return to the council for a final vote. The moratorium ends Oct. 14.

The planning and development committee voted to send the proposed changes to the full council for a vote, pending review and any edits by city staff or city attorney Mike Kendrick. The council will discuss it on June 24.

The committee has also asked the council to decide whether to return the city's minimum lot width to 75 feet for the approval of parking pads or driveway additions. The city's minimum was once at 75 feet but was scaled down to 60 feet after requests from homeowners on Oxmoor Road.

Residents told the committee that adding parking pads or driveways with a second entrance limit on-street parking capacity. Committee members said they felt properties like Oxmoor Road, where homeowners would have to back onto a busy street, should be the exception rather than the rule.

Additionally, the special issues committee approved a few changes to the city's policies around open records. Resident Liz Ellaby had asked the city to consider making some changes, including a time frame for responding to those requests and ensuring that all city meetings, including sub-committees and special meetings, have proper public notice and follow open meeting rules.

Ellaby also requested better access to the first page of police incident reports, which are supposed to be open to the public with redaction of private information.

The special issues committee voted to add a 10-day limit for city employees to respond to open record requests, though they can cite the need for additional time if the information will take a long time to gather. Other changes include the addition of an accountability statement on the website, changes to make public notices more organized when posted in city hall and more use of social media to share city news, such as board vacancies.

However, Ward 4 Councilor Barry Smith said after discussion with the mayor, the city attorney and police Chief Tim Ross, the city will not make changes to its police records policies. Accident records will be available for $15 each, and citizens can request copies of the front pages of specific incident reports for $1 each. Smith said these rates were reasonable compared to other cities they looked at.

Front page requests can be refused if there is an active investigation, releasing that information would harm the victim or an innocent person or it would harm the chances of a fair trial, Ross said. Smith also said state court cases have shown police have the right to decide whether the person making the request has an adequate reason to get a copy of the incident report.

Ellaby asked whether there could be a mechanism for citizens just to review the reports, not take copies. Journalists used to do that with paper copies in many municipalities' police departments and would create regular crime updates.

Ross said they don't have the manpower to print, redact and compile the logs to put in a public place. Ellaby asked whether a computer with digital copies could work instead, but this was not addressed by Ross or the committee.

Ross said he doesn't know of any other municipalities in the area that have a public log of incident reports available to the general public to view. Smith also said that Ellaby or other interested residents could make daily requests to see all incident logs, but the 10-day response period would still apply.

A number of other important items were discussed at the June 17 committee meetings but were carried over for further consideration, including:

  • Alabama Power has offered to take ownership of light poles within the city and replace them with LED lights, reducing the city's lighting costs and freeing up city staff from maintenance and repairs. However, the finance committee was concerned that giving up ownership of the poles would prevent the city from having a say on how and when telecommunications companies can place small cell and other devices on those poles. The committee wants to look at more options that include retaining some control.
  • The addition of a city planner, engineering inspector or zoning inspector to the Building, Engineering and Zoning Department, which BEZ employee Greg Cobb said is currently "covered up" in work, including paperwork related to the new tree ordinance and stormwater management. There was a lack of clarity on what position would best meet the department's needs, so it was carried over to the next finance committee meeting.
  • The special issues committee wants to put more regulations in place to solve parking, noise and other problems with properties rented by college students. The committee had first considered reducing the number of unrelated people allowed to live in a home from three to two, but this would violate the Fair Housing Act. The city has had problems with landlords not enforcing the limit, and they want to look at ways to fix some of the frequent neighbor complaints.
  • The city's stormwater management regulations will also be updated to apply to all properties, rather than just those larger than an acre. BEZ Head Wyatt Pugh said he and Homewood Environmental Commission Chair Amy Milam tweaked the wording so it wouldn't be a burden on the inspections department to monitor water runoff and quality, though there will be some additional paperwork for construction firms. The public works committee carried over the issue to wait for a final version of the regulations to review.