Liberty Highlands residents will have a park after Birmingham Council vote

The residents of the Liberty Highlands neighborhood in the eastern part of Birmingham will soon have something they've wanted for years – a city park.

A final step to making the park a reality was taken by the Birmingham City Council at their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 6.

The council voted 9-0 to approve the exercise of the city’s power of eminent domain to acquire a parcel at 5127 Civic Circle.

Councilor Kim Rafferty – her district includes Liberty Highlands – said the money for the park was part of a 2007 bond issue.

However, the city’s legal department had to work out the acquisition of this final piece of property that will be part of the park.

Legal “has done all they could do to move this forward,” Rafferty said.

“Liberty Highlands has been trying to get this park for 15 years,” Councilor Valerie Abbott said.

Caroline Jackson of the legal department said that the parcel being acquired is a vacant lot that went tax-delinquent years ago.

The owner died in Virginia, and the co-trustees have now stated that they have no objection to the city taking the property via condemnation, according to Jackson.

The last appraisal of the property valued it at about $3,000, Jackson said.

Money for port authority

The council voted 8-0-1, with Councilor Lashunda Scales abstaining, to appropriate $425,000 for use by the relatively new Birmingham Jefferson County Port Authority.

The BJCPA was approved in June 2016 by the Alabama State Port Authority Board and still has no executive director.

“We have to give them their start-up money so they can choose their consultant,” said Rafferty, a supporter of the measure.

That consultant will likely be Birmingham-based Strada Professional Services LLC, which has done other governmental consulting work locally, including mass-transit projects.

A resolution authorizing Mayor William Bell to pay Strada $425,000 to help get the BJCPA off the ground was on the meeting agenda but was delayed at the request of the administration.

That item will likely be back on the agenda soon, according to Tracy Roberts, one of the city’s attorneys.

Scales expressed concern that the council was voting to allocate the money without seeing a contract.

World Trade Center?

The council voted 7-1 with Abbott as the only dissenter to allow the mayor to make an application for Birmingham to receive a designation as a World Trade Center. This issue was originally discussed by the mayor and council on March 21.

Meeting moved to July 6

The council voted to moved its regular meeting for Tuesday, July 4, a holiday, to Thursday, July 6, and hold it at Regions Field. The pre-council meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the council meetings at 6 p.m.

No discussion yet of Titusville market

After a motion by Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt, the council voted to again delay action on the possible revocation of licenses for the South West Supermarket, a grocery in Titusville neighborhood that has been the scene of violence and drug activity. The matter is to be taken up again July 6. The council also voted to delay consideration of the item on May 2 and May 23. There was a lengthy discussion of the market on April 18.