City Council wants details of Mayor's plan for Ensley public safety center

Mayor William Bell’s controversial plan to turn the historic but decaying Ramsay McCormack office building in downtown Ensley into a new public safety center and municipal court was the prime subject for discussion at the regular meeting of the Birmingham City Council on Jan. 3.

And while some members expressed interest in the administration’s roughly $40 million plan for the 10-story structure – which Bell announced in early December – they said they needed more detail about how the project would work and how it could make a positive impact on Ensley.

“I think it’s a great idea to renovate it,” Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt said. “It is a statement for that community and that side of town.” But Hoyt told city engineer Andre Bittas that he wanted to see a plan on paper.

“A wise man once said, 'A goal without a plan is just a wish,'” Councilor Marcus Lundy said.

Lundy said that he was “excited” by the idea but would feel better if he was presented with a detailed plan from architects and other experts.

And the city is working under some serious time restraints, due to an order handed down in early December — right after Bell announced his plan — by Jefferson County Judge Mike Graffeo.

The judge ordered the city to award a contract to demolish the building by Feb. 10, according to media reports. He also ordered the city to make some other repairs in the area, including to street and sidewalks.

At the council meeting, Bell said that the judge’s order means that the city must “either fix it up or tear it down.”

The judge's order was in response to a lawsuit filed against the city in 2012 by some groups and businesses in Ensley asking that the city demolish the building as a nuisance after failing to renovate it.

The council voted today, after an executive session, to pay up to $354,000 to settle the lawsuit.

After the vote, Lundy said that he doesn’t want people in Ensley, Pratt City and other areas in west Birmingham who have been “traumatized” by the loss of U.S. Steel jobs “to get their hopes up for something that has not manifested on paper.”

He said that Bell’s plan — which he again referred to as “a wish” — lacked a budget or any detail regarding such issues as zoning, transportation and street improvements.

Councilor Kim Rafferty raised some of the same issues, asking for example whether the city had consulted the BJCTA and noting that many of the people who go to municipal court have to ride the bus.

Bell has presented the development as a way to help foster economic revitalization in downtown Ensley.

And Bittas said that the historic structure, built before the Great Depression when Ensley was booming, was structurally sound.

About three years ago, he said, the city “stabilized” the building, adding a temporary roof, removing asbestos and using plywood to cover windows.

“It’s a great building for us to re-purpose,” Bittas said, and he told Councilor Valerie Abbott that he was “confident” the building can be made ADA compliant.

He also some attractive “architectural features” that were saved during the asbestos removal, such as marble walls and floors in the lobby.

But the clock is ticking, according to Lundy, who noted that Graffeo has given the city “a tight deadline.”

He also said that it often takes the city a long to respond to requests for proposals or to get projects moving. “I would ask judge for an extension,” he said.