Birmingham City Council approves zoo agreement, hotel for NUSA, other items
The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 30, had a relatively light agenda.
Zoo agreement
Members voted 7-0 to approve an agreement with the Birmingham Zoo Inc., a nonprofit corporation, to continue to manage and operate the Birmingham Zoo. The city will pay BZI $400,000 a year for three years. The item was recommended by the council’s Budget and Finance Committee.
NUSA Conference on the way
The council voted 7-0 to allow the mayor to execute an agreement between the city and the BJCC -- as owner of the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel -- to secure a host hotel for the 2018-2019 Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference.
NUSA, created in 1975, is a national nonprofit committed to building and strengthening neighborhood organizations, the website states.
Its 2017 conference was held in Omaha, Nebraska, and the 2019 event will be held in Palm Springs, California.
Helping a developer
The council voted 8-0 to approve a slope and grading easement agreement and a drainage easement agreement at 2700 Wenonah Oxmoor Road for a developer called Grant’s Mill LLC that intends to develop market rate housing on the property. The developer requested the easements to facilitate its development, according to the text of the resolution. The city is under contract to sell the property to the developer for $369,000. The item was recommended by the mayor and the city’s economic development office.
Finley Blvd. access road
By a vote of 7-0, the council approved a funding agreement between the city and the Alabama Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture and the Jefferson County Truck Growers Association to build a access road from Finley Blvd to Finley Avenue West.
The project cost is estimated at $750,000, according to the text of the resolution, and the funding will come from the following sources: $50,000 from the Department of Agriculture; $125,000 from the Jefferson County Truck Growers Association; $200,000 from the State of Alabama; $300,000 from ALDOT and $75,000 from the city’s match for its ALDOT Finley Road access grant.