Birmingham City Council approves rezoning for another Parkside project

Commercial development in the Magic City’s booming Parkside area will get another boost after the Birmingham City Council, at their regular meeting for Tuesday, March 21, voted 6-0 to change the zoning on two parcels there from heavy industrial district to mixed-use downtown district.

The developers, Parkside 15 LLC and Restoration Properties LLC, plan to do a project with retail, office and residential components.at the properties, located at 15 12th St. South and 1230 First Ave. South.

Kyle Kirkwood, an architect at Williams Blackstock Architects, represented the developers before the council.

Kirkwood said the proposed rezoning was “consistent with all the positive development that is being done in the area.”

It seems like a “natural, positive rezoning,” one that would be consistent with adjoining property, he said.

The parcels are about a block west of the Baker’s Row development on 14th Street South near Regions Field, according to Kirkwood.

Not sure about I-59/20 study

The council voted 6-0 for a three-week delay before final consideration of a plan to appropriate $2 million to the city’s Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits to conduct a study of the feasibility of relocating the I-59/20 expressway out of the downtown core sometime in the future. ALDOT would reimburse the city for the expenditures, according to administration officials.

Several council members – including Lashunda Scales, Patricia Abbott and Sheila Tyson – expressed doubts about the study, even if ALDOT is to pay for it, since work has already begun on the state road agency’s plan to repair and improve the existing freeway, which slices through Birmingham’s downtown between the central business district and the BJCC.

“What are we doing?” said councilor Lashunda Scales. “This work is already being done.”

Sherri Nielson of Mayor Bell’s office said that when ALDOT begin talking about making repairs to I-59/20, the city asked if it would be possible to move the freeway out of the downtown core.

However, ALDOT told them that the city did not have a plan ready to move the freeway, that such a move could take 15 years and that repairs to the aging structure could not wait that long, according to Nielsen.

So ALDOT agreed to give the city $2 million for a study “to prepare us for the future so when the interstate comes up for repair or replacement, we will have a plan,” Nielsen said.

Some council members were skeptical that a study done now would have much utility years in the future when it is again time for major work to the freeway.

“We’re going to study this for people alive 20 to 30 years from now?” Councilor Patricia Abbott said. “In 20 to 30 years, nobody will rely on a study from… the past.”

Abbott said that she would have preferred seeing the freeway moved, but that there is no way to change that now. “Why should we throw $2 million of taxpayer money in the trash because some people wanted I-59/20 moved?” she said.

Councilor William Parker made the motion for a three-week delay, during which time councilors hope to learn more about ALDOT’s current plans and the effect of the ongoing construction on some city residents who live close to the roadway.

Questions about World Trade Center ‘game plan’

Mayor’s Bell’s office, represented by his chief of staff, Jarvis Patton, withdrew a resolution authorizing Bell to submit an application to the World Trade Centers Association for the city to obtain a “World Trade Center” designation – even after a long discussion of the issue by council members.

The application requires a one-time license fee of $250,000 plus – if the application is accepted – an annual fee of $12,500.

Some council members, including Abbott, President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt and William Parker, questioned whether the city should pay the application fee without a plan in place to get financial and other support in the effort from such groups as REV Birmingham, Innovation Depot and the Birmingham Business Alliance.

“I agree that we should join this but it’s not something we should do by ourselves,” Hoyt said. “We need some help from some of the organizations that we fund every year.”

“What is the game plan?” Parker asked Kirk Atkinson, a consultant working with the city on the trade center project. “That doesn’t seem to have really been thought out.”

The city would have a two-year “grace period” after the acceptance of the application to work out a plan and to make arrangements for an office, staff and other administrative needs, Atkinson said.

And Council President Johnathan Austin – while acknowledging that “there are questions that need to be answered and things that need to be fleshed out” – said that the city needs to move on the license application, especially since the deadline to apply is next Tuesday, March 28.

Austin said that -- according to a World Trade Centers Association official who spoke to a council committee meeting a few weeks ago -- cities around the world typically get their license first, then make detailed plans and partner with other organizations.

“We can’t talk to the other organizations unless we have the license,” Austin said.

Abbott disagreed. She expressed a desire to get “firm commitments” from other organizations before applying for the license, which has a another deadline June 1. “I want to have the deal done and lined up,” she said.

Patton, who said that the city had originally requested a one-week delay on the item, then pulled it from consideration.