City Council approves industrial park, BRT; Mayor Bell says goodbye

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 21, voted to approve a development agreement between the city and U.S Steel to develop a new industrial park near Barber Motorsports Park and provide a future location there for the Southern Museum of Flight.

The vote was 7-0-1 with one abstention by Councilor Lashunda Scales.

According to the text of the resolution, the city will provide financial incentives up to $4.6 million to USS Real Estate, a division of United States Steel Corporation, for road construction and for grading of approximately 40 acres of undeveloped property south of the Barber facility.

The site will be used for an industrial park, and USS Real Estate will transfer a 24-acre portion of the property to the city for use in a future relocation of the SMF from its current location in East Lake near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.

“This is an awesome development for Birmingham,” Councilor Jay Roberson said. “The new industrial park will be an opportunity to have a new home for the Southern Museum of Flight and to bring new national and international companies to Birmingham.”

“We have to be visionaries,” Councilor John Hilliard told the other council members, adding that the development will be a chance to create jobs and boost tourism with a new, highly visible site for the SMF next to an interstate highway.

Griffin Lassiter of the city’s Office of Economic Development said that Birmingham, along with U.S. Steel and the Birmingham Business Alliance, will work to recruit companies for the industrial park. The city will “reap the benefits” of new tax revenue from the deal, according to Lasseter.

Scales and Councilor Steven Hoyt raised concerns about the deal. Hoyt asked why the SMF needed to be moved from its present location near the airport, where the city owns about 400 acres of land there.

Scales disapproved of the notion of moving the SMF from “a distressed area” to a new location which is not accessible via bus lines for city residents.

Bus rapid transit

Members voted 8-0 to execute an agreement with the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority to implement the long-discussed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project running from Woodlawn to Five Points West with a total estimated project cost of about $42,435,000.  

This budget includes a $20 million federal TIGER grant awarded to the city in Oct. 2015, a $20 million match from the city and a smaller federal grant for about $875,000 awarded to the BJCTA, according to Howard Richards, the project manager at Strada, a local consulting firm.

When the BRT was taken up previously on Oct. 31, city finance director Tommy Barnett told members that the city would finance its match by going to the bond market, and he said that the county would ultimately pay about $8 million of the match with revenue from its sales tax.

How much did we say?

BJCTA executive director Barbara Murdock appeared before the council to complain that the city and the BJCTA were “not singing from the same page” in terms of the amount of money the city has promised to give the transit system in fiscal year 2018.

She said that Mayor Bell’s administration, including chief of staff Jarvis Patton, had promised her earlier in 2017 that the BJCTA would get $15.6 million.

However, there is only about $10 million in the budget currently being considered by the council -- a budget that typically should have been passed by July 1.

Murdoch also referenced the BRT project, saying that if the BJCTA does not receive its proper funding, it could affect whether the body is considered to be in “good standing” by the federal officials who administer the grants for the project.

After much discussion, Council President Valerie Abbott said that the issue should be taken up in greater depth at the next meeting of the council’s committee of the whole.

Legion Field repairs

The council voted 8-0 to approve an expenditure of $210,000 to make repairs to the elevators at Legion Field, part of an ongoing series of improvements at the facility. McGee Construction of Clanton will do the elevator work. The council also recently approved about $977,000 for other repairs at the stadium. City engineer Andre Bittas said that he expects there will be further repairs needed moving forward, and that his department is working with the Park and Recreation Board. Some of the work being done currently is “critical” to keeping Legion Field in operation, Bittas said.

Farewell

Mayor William Bell offered some emotional parting remarks during his final council meeting as the city’s chief executive. Incoming mayor Randall Woodfin is to be sworn in on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

Bell reflected on his nearly 40 years in public life in Birmingham, going back to his election to a council seat in November 1979, and said his public service has been a “great pleasure.”

“I’ve tried to be guided by the principle that I'm here to serve,” Bell said.

Bell thanked all current and former members of the council, as well as the public, “who keep you on your toes,” he said. “They can lift you up and they can tear you down.”

He told the new council members that there is no “manual” to show them how to be a council member or public official. “You have to find your own way,” he said.

Bell said that he had recently spoken to Woodfin recently and offered his assistance.

“This is my city,” he said. “I love this city. I want to see it go forward.”