City Council approves zoning change for Publix in Southwest Birmingham

Southwest Birmingham will get a Publix supermarket as part of a new shopping center at 2151 Lakeshore Parkway. The Birmingham City Council voted 8-0 at their regular meeting on Feb. 28 to approve a zoning change to allow the project to proceed.

The developers are MAB American Management, represented in the zoning application by John Argo.

The council also voted 8-0 on Jan. 27 to approve financial incentives potentially worth more than $3 million for the project, located at the intersection of Lakeshore Parkway and Shannon-Wenonah Road.

Julius Oliver, the president of the Oxmoor Neighborhood Association, spoke in favor of the project before the vote to change the zoning.

"We've never had a grocery store in the seventh district," Oliver said. "This is a great opportunity for Publix, the neighborhood and the seventh district."

“This is a need that has been a long time in southwest Birmingham, the Seventh District in particular," said Councilor Jay Roberson, who represents that district.

Citizens there have long needed a place to go for such essential services as groceries and prescription medicines, Roberson said.

The shopping center will contain a 45,600-square-foot grocery store, 22,400 square feet of inline and pad shop space and a 1.1-acre outparcel site.

The financial incentives, not to exceed $3.3 million, will be payable in seven annual installments.

There have also been discussions of using the Publix as a location for workforce training for young people in the area, including students at Lawson State Community college, who are interested in the grocery industry, according to Roberson.

In other business, the council voted 9-0 to approve the creation of a new Healthy Food Incentive Program for the city that will require a $2 million line item in the city’s fiscal 2018 budget.