Photo by Erin Nelson
Upton Moorer, 4, rides his scooter along the sidewalk in the Mayfair neighborhood of Homewood on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022.
The Homewood City Council’s Finance Committee last week discussed what the city should do in terms of prioritizing future sidewalk projects.
The committee initially removed future sidewalk projects from its agenda on Monday, Dec. 4, because the topic has been on the agenda for months, but Councilman Carlos Alemán asked about the criteria for prioritizing sidewalk projects.
Council President Alex Wyatt said the city previously had put sidewalk projects in the vicinity of schools as being among the higher priorities. The second phase of a sidewalk project on Delcris Drive is the major effort that’s currently under way.
“Once we get Delcris … it's time to start looking at those [other priority sidewalk projects] again and sort of seeing how they're going to shake out,” Wyatt said. “We were just trying to get to the end of the high priority or at least down to the high priorities that were possible.”
The council still must make decisions about upcoming sidewalk project options, including Valley Avenue, Wyatt said.
“Once those decisions are made about those projects, then I think the next step is prioritizing the medium priority list, which is pretty lengthy as well,” the council president said.
Wyatt suggested having City Engineer Cale Smith email out the list to council members again because it has probably been a long time since everyone has seen it.
“Truthfully, it's not a whole lot different from three years ago because the only projects that we've been doing are big projects that take up the entire budget,” Wyatt said.
Finance Committee Chairman Walter Jones said finance decisions are made during budget planning based on what can be accomplished in the fiscal year and he wants to continue discussing those issues in budget hearings. However, he’s fine with the committee continuing to look further into the matter, he said.
Jones suggested the council “celebrate our successes” when it comes to what has been accomplished with sidewalk projects. “We have done miles and miles of sidewalk,” he said.
Berkley Squires, the director of public services, said he didn’t want to be a “Debbie downer,” but “we've got to start looking at the storm drains. I love the sidewalks, but just don't forget that part.”
In other business, the Finance Committee voted to approve a contract for communication services, sending the matter to the full council. That contract is with Brian Wallace, who currently handles the job for the city.
Management of the parks and recreation website was originally part of that responsibility, but that job now is in the parks and recreation budget.
The Public Works Committee heard a request to block part of the right of way while repairs are made to the Shoefly boutique building façade at 2823 18th St. S. The committee approved the request and sent the matter to the full council.
The Planning and Development Committee heard a request to consider proposed revisions to the city’s zoning ordinance. Smith called it a “total repeal and replace” of the current ordinance, identifying issues from the past 2½ years.
“One of the biggest problems is we have a hard time communicating clearly our expectations to contractors, builders, homeowners and other folks who do work in Homewood,” he said. “The formatting is outdated. It’s hard to navigate through it.”
Smith also cited outdated language and some missing materials, like the fence and wall ordinance. “We just wanted to clean that up,” he said.
The city engineer said no property is being rezoned or reclassified in this revision of the zoning ordinance. Committee members were urged not to publish their proposed ordinance because any changes made after publication would require the city to reset the public hearing.
“Once we set it, then we’re locked into that date,” Wyatt said. “If we change anything about it, then we’ve got to start over.”
The committee delayed consideration of the new zoning ordinance until its meeting on Dec. 18. The matter would then go to a public hearing before the full council, which meets that same night.
The Special Issues Committee scheduled public hearings for Dec. 11 for sign variances at:
- 3430 Independence Drive
- Hero Restaurant at 1726 28th Ave. S.
- Bricktop’s Restaurant at 2800 U.S. 280.
- LUCA Restaurant at 1722 28th Ave. S.
- Slice Pizza at 1010 Oxmoor Road
