Birmingham City Council sets Sept. 26 hearing for nondiscrimination ordinance

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Sept. 19, voted 7-0 to schedule a public hearing regarding what promises to be a comprehensive nondiscrimination ordinance for the city.

The hearing was set for the next regular council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 26.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit discrimination “on the basis of a person’s real or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or familial status,” the resolution states.

The new law would also provide for enforcement and create a “Human Rights Commission” to advise the mayor and council regarding the elimination of discriminatory practices in Birmingham, according to the resolution.

The council voted for a one-week delay in taking up another ordinance regarding the inclusion of nondiscrimination provisions in city contracts so that the two measures can be discussed at the same time.

Approving two more framework plans

The council voted to approve two more of the “framework,” or comprehensive, plans that have been created recently for nine areas that take in the entire city.

Members voted 8-0 to approve an ordinance changing zone district boundaries for all properties in the Southwest Framework Plan area, which includes the Brownville, Grasselli and Southwest Communities.

The council voted 6-1 – with Councilor Kim Rafferty the only dissenting vote – to approve a similar ordinance for the Northeast Framework Plan area, which takes in the East Pinson Valley, Huffman, Cahaba and Roebuck/South East Lake communities.

The Northeast Framework Plan generated some controversy when it was first given a public hearing September 5. A few residents from Birmingham, Leeds and other communities objected to the plan that day and it was delayed for two weeks.

They noted that some of the area affected was land in the Cahaba River Watershed owned by the Birmingham Water Works Board – land the Alabama Attorney General ruled in 2001 should be protected from development due to possible damage to the area’s drinking water.

Mac Underwood, the general manager of the Water Works Board, told the council that the board had followed the AG’s instructions and had allowed no development in the affected areas.

However, Underwood and a BWWB attorney said that the board – for a variety of reasons – was only now preparing for some conservation easements connected with the 2001 order in Jefferson County Probate Court.

Tim Gambrel, the city's chief planner, urged on Sept. 19 that the council approve the plan.

He said that, in the two weeks since the Sept. 5 hearing, the office of the state attorney general had told the BWWB that they have remained in compliance with the 2001 order to protect the land.

In addition, they have told the BWWB they will be allowed to file the conservation easements in Jefferson County within 30-45 days – subject to some negotiation over the final form of the documents.

“This is a significant victory for those who were in opposition to this,” Gambrel said.

More residents were allowed to speak, however, at Rafferty’s request.

Two residents said they had witnessed some building projects – including a gas station and some land clearing – taking place on land they thought should be protected from any development.

“I’m in favor of this plan, but I’m concerned about things I’ve heard today,” Councilor Patricia Abbott told Gambrel.

“To my knowledge, there are no development plans on any of the land owned by the Water Works Board,” Gambrel said.

Gambrel, as he did on Sept. 5, argued that the zoning in place on the land is already very strict and that his staff has begun work on a new zoning designation that would make the land a conservation district.

There are a total of nine framework plans being developed across the city with the assistance of the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.

These smaller plans are part of a larger comprehensive plan for the city of Birmingham, the first one created since 1961.

To read more about the framework plans, go to imaginebham.com.