Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[snorts] [snorts] Yes. Okay. We're going to call to order the um December 2025 meeting of the Homewood Planning Commission. If we could start with roll call, please. All right. Mr. Gulas, here. Mr. Sims, here. Mr. Stamps, here.

Mr. Underwood, Mr. Ruspento here, Mr. Harwell here, Miss Wilcott here, Mr. Hinger here, and Mr. Roberts here. Um, thank you. Uh, we are going to skip past I think the meeting minutes from our last meeting will be ready before our next meeting. Uh, so no meetings to minutes to vote on tonight. Uh, communications from the chair and the vice chairman. Mr. Hener, you have anything? I don't think.

Okay. Uh the only thing I have is if those of you who who attend all of our meetings that we have a big group of you, I'm sure every month probably noticed a little bit of a different composition to our commission. We've had three new members replacing three people who have rolled off. Uh we'll start uh with uh Jared Stamps who is our uh the battalion chief and fire marshal. He's replacing Brandon Broadhead who has rolled off. Uh and um also we have uh Jeff Underwood who is replacing Winsow Armstead who is now on city council and we also have Nick Sims who is replacing Mayor Andress as the council liaison member to the planning commission. So like to welcome all three of you. Um as most of you are probably familiar with Mr. Underwood Underwood he's been involved in Homewood U leadership for a long time including being a past president of the city council. So, we have some very, very qualified, maybe overqualified people joining us. So, we're happy to have them. We'd also like to thank uh Mayor Andress, uh Mr. Broadhead, uh and Mr. Armstead for their service the last several years. Uh they were all very involved and and excellent members of this commission. We'll definitely miss them. So, um that's all I have as far as communications. So, uh we can just move to new business. All right. First case is uh case AD25-12-01. Uh this is a re I'm sorry an aended development plan at 400 University Park. The applicant is Brook Brookdale Senior Living Facility. Um and Mark Hardwick is the owner of whoever's presenting could come forward and uh present your case, please. Hi, good evening. Uh, my name is Matt Sims. I am with Shaw Engineering. We are the civil engineer on this project. Speaking on behalf of the applicant.

Okay. Tell us uh tell us about what you're asking us as far as the changes in the amended development plan. Yeah. Uh uh the essential reason is uh the client has asked to develop a pickle ball court in a portion of their parking lot to be utilized uh for their residents both for recreational and therapeutic reasons and uh the way that the regulations are written for the city of Homewood that this would then trigger an amended development plan. U Thank you. Now understood. Uh well this is a public hearing. Uh if anyone here wants to speak on this case this would be your opportunity. Um and and Mr. uh I'm sorry. Did you say Mr. Sims Sims? Okay. Uh did you if you wrote your name down then you can uh I can do that.

Yeah. If you would do that and just kind of as a marching forward uh matter if you come forward to speak if you would just in addition to stating your name for the record, write it down along with your address on the on the pad. So all right. Again, this is a public meeting. Uh if anyone from the public wants to speak on this case, this is your opportunity. And seeing no one, we'll close the public portion and open up to any questions. Mr. Sims, you can you can come back up. Okay. And just to just to be clear on this, the pickle ball court where it's located is on the opposite side of the property away from the creek um right next to Lake Shore there.

That's correct. Yeah. This is going to be near the back part of the property up against a fairly large retaining wall. So, not visible really to anybody unless you are driving into the property itself. Can I understand? No illumination. This is just a daytime. That's correct. It's just a daytime use.

Make a motion to approve. Second. You made the motion. Who second? All right. All right, Mr. Gulas. Uh, yes. Mr. Sims, yes. Mr. Heniger, yes. Mr. Underwood, Mr. Ruspento. Uh, yes. Mr. Harwell. Yes. Miss Wilcott. Yes. Mr. Stamps. Yes. And Mr. Roberts.

Yes. So, um that um amended development plan is going to go forward with a 90 recommendation to city council. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on. Our our next two cases are related. Uh the case is RS 251202, a reservey request with respect to uh A13 Green Springs Highway and then an amended development plan uh for the same uh address case 80 uh 25uh 1203. Um the applicant is Homewood Community Church. Uh if whoever is here to present on the on this case could come forward down again. Just state your name. uh name and address for the record as well. Brian Hatcher with Cadra Engineering, 2447 Alton Road, Irondale. Um I've also got

Yeah, Mike O. Kelly with O Kelly Architecture, 200 Homemstead Street. Good evening. I'm Tom Franklin. I'm the pastor of Homewood Community Church. While Tom fills out his information, I'll kind of go and introduce what we're looking at. Um case two and three tonight are related. Um currently, Shara owns the two properties shown in this exhibit. Um, Home and Community Church is looking to subdivide and purchase the rear lot, the lot in orange on this property to combine with their property to the south of this that's currently located behind the edge um for the development of a new church facility for them. Um, I'm going to let Tom kind of tell you a little bit about HCC that you may not be aware of. um just so you kind of know who they are as a entity and then I'll kind of get back in and talk about some specific technical items.

Thanks. Uh good evening again. I'm Tom. I'm the pastor. Uh our church has been meeting for seven years. Uh about 10 years ago, uh I had a dream. I've lived in Homewood for about 20 years now. So just want to say thanks for what you do for our city. Uh the dream here is to be a it's an old concept uh of being a parish church which just simply means we're in a community and for a community. And so uh our mission statement is really simple. It's that we would be a group of people that love God, love their neighbor, and love their place. So I hope if you haven't heard of us um that you if you have, you would say that we've already been a blessing to our community. That's our goal. Uh and so when we uh saw this property as a potential place to have a permanent home, uh we thought it was perfect for a couple reasons, but mostly because it's uh feels like it's a part of the community. It's a place where a lot of our members will most likely be able to walk to church. Um it's uh very close to where I live as well. Um but maybe more importantly, it's just a place where we think all of Homewood could consider it to feel like home. So, that's our goal as a church. Again, we're seven years in. We hope that we can be a church that has a faithful presence in Homewood for a long, long time. Um, but it's been a joy so far. So, feel free to ask me anything that you might want. So the reservey portion of this project, which would be the case number two for the night, would take the green parcel shown on the screen and separate it from the dark red parcel as the first step. The reason it's the first step is for them to purchase the parcel, it has to be separated from the overall master parcel from Shinara.

um pending approval hopefully tonight on the reservey and the amended development plan. They will come back in the future and reservey the green lot and the light red lot together so they have one contiguous parcel that their parking and building are in. Um this this parcel and this development will access from the north from Carr Avenue and from the west from Green Springs Highway. There is I don't know if you want to click forward to the development plan or how you want to or how we want to do it. I know there are two cases but they're so tied it's hard to explain. That'll work. So, the it has a northern access off of Carr Avenue and a a western access off of Green Springs Highway. There is no planned access on Columbia Road. That is on purpose. Um, so the site has two current easements to get to it. There's an easement that goes through the edge parking lot to the to the site itself that was put in place when the edge was designed and constructed. There's also an ingress egress easement from Carr Avenue through the Shinara parcel to their new parcel um that is in place for when they close on the property that they're purchasing. Um which would then allow them to combine the two parcels and get their parking solely on their parcel, which would provide 206 overall parking spaces. 175 are required for their development and their church. They do have a cross parking agreement with the edge that they will pull 41 spaces from. The edge has 82 spaces in total per the homewood zoning code. They

can pull 50% and in with under a shared access or shared parking agreement. So the 41 from the edge and the ones that would be on their site get them to 206 total parking spots for 175 required. Um when we do subdivide from the Shinara parking Shinara parcel the northern half Shinara still has the correct parking count for their proposed for their existing buildings on site. They do not need a cross cross parking agreement with us nor us with them based on the sizes of their existing buildings and the parking count they have remaining. They fulfill the code requirement. Um, kind of going forward from there, you'll notice in the the green hatch on the screen against Columbia Road is a undisturbed buffer that is currently in place and we are leaving in place. The blue hatch is the building setback which is a 60oot setback from the ride ofway on Columbia Road. And then basically we are planning to park there's an existing covert that runs from Green Springs Highway bisecting the northern and southern parcels and goes under a bridge under Columbia Road. We are proposing under our parking lot to culvert that that bridge or that ditch and it will be designed per city code 100year storm and will handle the loading of the fire department requirements for their trucks which I believe were 85,000 pounds. So, the goal is to park have one continuous parking lot across that that uh culvert and then we'll work work through that with city staff on any maintenance agreements we need to take control of or take out of the city maintenance side of it. Um the development plan, we have some building elevations as well. Well, what you're looking at now is the

proposed part or the proposed landscape plan uh which meets the landscape ordinance for the city and the tree ordinance. Um these are the building elevations. If Michael wants to kind of tell you what you're looking at.

Yeah. So, um normally we wouldn't do this level of detail this early in the process and what's kind of master planning, site planning, but um obviously your requirements dictated. We turn in some elevations. So these are done by hand, but the idea being that we want it to look like a church, you know, which hence the gable roof on the sanctuary side of it. Then the twotory wing, the education wing, you there's already some, you know, kind of flat roofed masonry buildings nearby. We wanted to play off of that. It allows us opportunity to have parapits to hide some rooftop equipment obviously. Um materials, you know, 90ish% we're looking at like brick with pre-cast accents, something traditional in design. um don't really get a sense for the detailing on a drawing like this, but you know, we're hoping to find some brick that's, you know, a little bit more antique looking. Have some um corbling at the gable ends either through bricks or through pre-cast corbals. Um some canopies to provide some sun sun shade and rain cover primarily off the big main lobby. We've got the way the posi the building is positioned. Um it will have an entrance on the east side facing Columbia for anybody that wants to walk to church even though there's no vehicular access over there. And then the primary entrance will really be on the the west and the north. We've got a really long linear um kind of 22 or so foot deep by maybe 100 foot long lobby space with doors opening up to the north to like a little plaza. um kind of an outdoor common space and the doors opening up to the west to face the edge parking lot.

I guess one thing to note on this would be the right portion on your if you're looking at the bottom view on the east elevation, the right portion of the building you're looking at is the education wing which is two stories. The left portion that has the gable roof is the sanctuary portion which is only a onetory section. with and I we went with a max height of 45 ft per the zoning plan. Um if you have any questions, we're happy to answer them.

We probably will, but before we get to that, we're going to open this up for the public. Uh again, this is public hearing. If anybody wants to come forward and speak on this case, this is your opportunity. Uh Scott Hton. Uh I'm a uh live in the adjacent neighborhood. I'm sorry. Would you repeat your name? I didn't hear.

My name is Scott Hton. I live in adjacent neighborhood off of Hanbot Terrace. Um I just had questions about this project. It could have been answered easier than getting the notice on uh Thanksgiving evening. Uh so my concerns on this project are uh are similar to what was uh proposed when the edge passed about noise and sound. Some things that weren't uh properly addressed during that project. Uh specifically on this one, the corner of Columbia and Car Avenue, the easement, if we're leaving 30 feet alone with the trees, mature trees that are there, that's important to the the neighborhood to keep noise down. Uh and other concerns with uh drainage whether the uh they especially with the change of the the parking lot was that going to affect any drainage into the the adjacent neighborhoods? Um those are my major concerns with this project. Uh you know once completed but during the uh construction phase uh how are vehicles going to enter the construction site? Uh is Colombiana going to be shut down? Is is Car Avenue going to be uh overloaded more than it is now? Uh currently with with Publix not having access with the light, everyone cuts through by the fire department and that that's it's not a three-way stop. It's nothing there. You just have to wait forever. I've gotten stuck in that parking lot for 20 minutes trying to get out of Publix. So, just be aware that's a concern. I don't know uh how y'all handle that as far as notices or uh if y'all can work with the city to improve traffic in the area. Uh but that would be a important step I think. Um so uh you addition of of 200 parking

spots that's assuming 200 vehicles are going to want to leave there after church. Uh again, no turn lanes on either one of those roads. So access in and out of the neighborhood is going to be blocked in certain times of the day. Uh please address those before this project moves forward. Thank you. Thank you. Um, hi. I am Jessica Sparks. I live at 815 Columbia Road, which you could see was directly behind the edge on the larger planning document that was up on the screen a few minutes ago. Um, one of the things I have heard from our neighbors who live in those homes on Colombana is concern about construction traffic. And I know that the overall plan doesn't show an entrance to and from the church on Colombana directly, but we received a letter. Homewood Community Church came down our street probably two or three weeks ago and gave everyone, we received one, our neighbors received one, a letter saying that while they were hoping to avoid construction traffic on Colombana, they were concerned that it might be a requirement of the planning commission um to have that access on our street. And I think it's important to note, I've lived on our street for almost nine years, and people go 300 miles an hour down that street. It is a big cut through to get off of Green Springs, to get to

Edgewood, to get to Publix, and people fly. And Nick, as our city council person, I know you've heard our concerns about that in the past because it's a pretty dangerous thing. Um, so that's something to consider. And also, if people are going to be walking there, there's only one crosswalk to get to the edge. And if we're talking 200 cars of people plus people walking from their neighborhood, I think that's, you know, additional crosswalks are something might need to be discussed. I am concerned that that is a safety issue with people, you know, lots of folks walking on a street that has one crosswalk and sidewalks only down one side of the street. But construction traffic tearing up our street is also a concern that we are you know noticing and just don't want anything to be you know destroyed or damaged because of that. So thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Nika Jabaris. I live on Actton Avenue. I have lived there since 1965. I don't know if the people really investigate the area, but Green Springs is the worst place to have a church. It's not safe. People do not know what goes up and down that street at night. So there's also places they can get. There's a church in Colombana. It's a Methodist church and I don't think they have many people attending there as they used to because most of them come into the one on Knoxmore Road. So there's also another church. There's another church on Raleigh Avenue that

was up for sale. That was a nice church. They have the stuff. I don't I don't know if it got sold or not, but there's so much other areas the church can look for. There's a lot of property to be bought on um on Lake Shore. And I think in my opinion, this would be a big mistake to build a church right on Green Springs Highway. Thank you.

Did you sign the name? If you would, please. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Julia Khano. I'm with uh I'm at 811 Colombiana Road. I'm I and the very large house next to me are probably the most directly and immediately impacted by it. And uh fortunately Nick has has been a real advocate for us in terms of meeting with the both uh the the edges management and we've been in touch also with the the church folks. But um my my primary concern aside from access and there is uh there was some note in there that access is not complet contemplated at this time. the the owner of the house next to me at 809 and some of the more vocal advocates, the one those organizers on Colombana Road, we have a large text group. uh they asked me they were not able to come one out of the country other u the other unable to come because the children that they made a point to emphasize that the access the fact that there seemed that qualification and out that that is a huge huge deal from us and we've also received what we believe are commitments from uh from the church and from from others from the edge and from from those we've had contact with here on the council not to have it. So, I'm concerned that there that seemed to be um something that was considered con a possibility. That's a big big deal to us for many many reasons. the traffic that the other gentleman mentioned for one thing um because I'm most immediately uh impacted I'd say two the fact that we have the we had talked at one point about the divider space there

are trees that do not reach that at this point now we hope and I'm gratified to hear a lot of the desire to be a good neighbor and um he has been very polite and and kind in his interactions with us, but we don't see the the divider that we had been that had been committed to us. The the the owner of the house next to me, the giant one who's most immediately impacted who has the crosswalk in front of him also made a point from overseas to tell me tonight to make to repeat that that is a big deal. There is no primarily not just the noise that the others even much more distantly are impacted by we're immediately in front of it but light the light pollution uh I have as it stands now that's why this this talk about the the parking spaces I have what is what I imagined like um a series of headlights in front of me now with absolutely nothing to cover It's night and day. There were trees there before those. I've been there just over 20 years and what had been very much a green space. I can't I I understand that that that it would there was an impact but we had there had been more of a commitment for for dividing the light is um is blinding uh the noise also. I imagine it could be that the the church helps reduce uh the noise pollution, but in particular those most immediately impacted right in front of us. It is like I said blinding. Um so let's see noise the drainage I think they addressed in the homewood community

church indicated that uh the code requires that it be improved. I'm glad you hear that. Um the what the lady mentioned about uh the uh the traffic. It is like she says, I'm here to support that also. Scary. I have become one of those people who who who leaps out and raises my fist because I'm thinking a child is going to get run over in this as it is now. Um with perhaps this would slow them down. I don't know. But um so my primary concerns are no access reiterate that and more of a divide a divider um as it stands now it's almost intolerable. I don't know what additional traffic will do but uh again I'm heartened that uh those members of the home community church appear to be very interested in helping us resolve this and I hope you will too.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, can I say something that I think will ease some people's minds and just share some information that might and it might cut down on some of the the comments that I feel sure are going to have to do with this. Is that okay with you? It's okay with me. Yes.

Okay. Um there there will be a a 30foot buffer on on the back of the property. Um and a buffer is is a specifically design um defined thing in the zoning ordinance. the um it requires a certain type of planting evergreens for instance instead of something that is deciduous and is going to you know have the year not provide the privacy that you're looking for.

Um also after the first year for instance the the trees and things that are planted there have to reach a certain height. have to be at six feet at the end of the first year. At the end of three years, um the general guidelines are 80% opacity. So that at 8t. So the planting material that they put in this 30 foot area um this buffer area

is what you're what you're referring to is is that Now it looks bad because you have to clean out a lot of the underbrush to to put in new. So from it looks more naked than it used to.

Um but it's not going to forever. The plan shows that there will be that 30- foot buffer and then there will be a 60 foot setback from the property line to the back of the building. So there's a considerable distance from the back of the building to well even before you get to Colombana. It's the property line, not to Colombana. So, does that help at all? Does that help you feel any better? Well, when a buffer is supposed to uh lessen the the impact on on us.

Yes. It it's trees and evergreen trees and plants and shrubs and things that will um they basically work as a damper, you know, to help with the the noise. Certainly um any kind of lighting that will be on site which and we will get a photometric for that so we'll be able to see that it doesn't leave the property. Um, but that's what landscaping buffers are for. Um, to protect residential areas from non-residential areas.

Okay. And I just wanted you to know that it was it it is on the plan to be there and it's something that we will look at closely when it's submitted.

Okay. But I'm I'm not sure now I imagine because it's a church I'm not sure what sort of evening activities there would be. But at the level I don't know that you could understand how it is until you were there at night. If the headlights, you can imagine a row of headlights shining at you at because my house is lower. I mean, it is the lights are it is straight across. I I don't think anyone here would bomb it anything. But while it does not buffer at all two or three years of that.

Yeah. Yeah. Now, that's what I wonder about too is the parking is there and further down, but is there going to be anything to lessen the impact there? The tops of the trees do not touch it. It is a row of headlights, a shining what were trees, complete trees now are it's it's like a um a it's I I don't know. I think that you could not know until you saw it. Yeah, that is to me it's shocking that that's allowed.

Um, and I don't again I don't know what sort of evening activities or what sort of parking situation there would be there, but I'd like you to contemplate contemplate it as you would plans to see what kind of light pollution it would be. Um, and you're talking about two or three years from now. Right now though, trees don't buffer at all at all. Yeah. Um

and there also as described originally it was a wall that far apart and do not block [clears throat] and there were there were oddly enough there were there were small trees all on the edge. I called the uh as I saw them being torn down. And I happened to be working remotely that day and walked out walked up to them and I said, "Would you please leave some of this?" And these were just pages enough. That was that's when I noticed the next day they had an event at the edge which had a wall of cards pointed at me and all of a sudden um it became that

and the the day before and you could see where they had they they were kind enough to It was about a a 10 foot wide a hedge of bushes and that was enough to but only you could see where I asked them to stop. Yeah. And they were kind enough to they responded but they left only that tiny space. The house next to me absolutely nothing. It's all gone. Okay.

Um and I'm not sure what sort of on that part of the what to do between now and then because I I thought about videotaping and put but I think you would have to just drive by on your own but but it's when there are events there. Um and that [clears throat] was a Sunday night. Yeah. Yeah. I think an important point too looking at the edges parking will actually be the sanctuary will be blocking the church. I was going to say it maybe but it's going to be blocked by the church. If you look at your

pipel I and the very large house next to it are the ones immediately you're going to be direct directly behind the directly behind the building so that's why I say in a way I thought that could uh in in about a year and a half I think the church is going to block that lighting that you currently see from the edge. Building itself will block that. Okay. And noise also from the edge.

No. If all this would be I'm imagine from a from the activities from from people driving in and out or walking to and from right there. I don't know because I'm not sure exactly what I think once the public hearing portion is closed. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And by the way, I would like to add the both the edge the management edge and the Homewood Community Church have been extremely polite and really kind in their dealings with us. Good.

Thank you. Good evening. I see some familiar pl faces up there. My name is Greg Cobb. I live at 1310 Palmet Meadow Street. So, my property is not affected by this development, but I just want to share with you some things I know about the area um right now. And that's water. Okay. Back when I first went to work for the city of Homewood, Captain De's was still there and everything behind Captain De's towards Columbia was wooded. It was scrub m mostly, but we didn't hardly any flooding problems. And the first time I got called out to one, it was um 821 Actton and the water was standing in that backyard. wasn't very deep, about 4 in deep, but the whole yard was just underwater. So, [snorts] that wasn't that bad because it wasn't affecting the houses. Well, once they went went to clearing that wooded lot, started clearing towards Columbombia and they cleared about half of it in the beginning and I guess is when they started on the edge and the water got higher and higher. And uh I don't know how many of y'all have walked out that Drainage basin, but I've walked it all. And what that cover does, it picks up water all the way from I 65. Okay, there's a pipe that goes it comes in from behind what used to be majors that hooks into it. And there's another one that comes in off of Car Avenue where Car Avenue dead ends to the

interstate. Comes in there and it goes to it. Then it goes down and it crosses Columbia Road. It kind of snakes around in front of those um I don't know what those are, town homes, whatever you want to call them. And then it goes underground and it goes across the backyard of 816 Actton turns and goes back due east across the sideyard of um 8 821 Actton. So as it started to develop and we're not there yet. I mean this is when they started the edge development and clearance more of that lot. So last time I went over there, the water had been up to the floor joist of 816 and that house sitting about 3 ft off the ground. You can see the high water mark right at the back door. So, you know, any vehicle that drove down that road would create wave action, just push it right into the house. Um, it's picking up a lot more water than what people think it is. And I have seen it flood all the way across Broadway. when it flooded act and he's got so what happened that that ditch I didn't finish where where I was going that ditch goes underwater yeah under underground across 821 then it turns and it goes underground to about the front yard of whatever the house is on Broadway and it daylights and then it flooded Broadway there's There's a little uh box cover under Broadway. It's not really a bridge. It's a box cover. It's flooded Broadway and it goes on into Griffin Creek. But the the problem I see is that there's I don't know where you get any relief from it.

I mean, I know there's a detention pond on there, but I uh um Miss Williams, who did the detention pond? Do you know

who did the Oh, okay. Well, I hope they get a good hydraologist on it because it's a it's a very difficult problem. They're fighting uphill battle. I already know we got flooding over there. I've seen it. I've been there many times. And it's not going to get any better. So that's my biggest concern is what it's going to do to the flood waters because now you're taking what woods was woods, now it's dirt and partly wooded and you turn it into hard surface. So that not only does it not absorb the water, but it makes it move that much faster because water will come across parking lot a whole lot faster than it is across rough ground. So I I think that's the biggest hurdle we've got right there is how to handle that water. So, if it if we have any heavy rains here in the near future, I would encourage y'all to take a little drive down Aton Avenue and see what you think. That's really all I want to share with you that I have I have been to those floods and I can only see it getting worse. It's not going to get better. That's all. Any questions? [laughter] Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cob. How are y'all this evening? My name is Craig Boyette. I live at 8 at 100 Actton Avenue, right at the corner of Carr and Actton. Sil is mystery. Really, I guess I just want to reiterate the point about no construction traffic, no church traffic exiting on to Colombana. Uh, you know, they'll just have to make do as far as construction. car in Green Springs, that's no problem. But it's just it'll be a nightmare if they flood Columbombiana and Carr at the same time. Also, the three-way stop at Carr and Broadway is just a suggestion, not a rule. Very few people come to a complete stop at that three-way intersection. If we don't have police presence there at CAR and Colombana, they're going to do the same thing. Rolling stop, stuff like that. If you're walking, you take your life in your own hands. Uh, another thing is we really, they say 200 parking spots. Uh, how many people are members of the church? Y'all know off the top of your head? So, I guess the 200 would accommodate that many people in cars. I mean,

there's not going to be just one per car, but if they grow any, we'll have a lot more traffic. And then next thing you know, we don't really want a parking deck built in our neighborhood. and all. We we have one on [clears throat] Broad, excuse me, Oxmore and it's not very pretty building and all, but they uh How many times a night a week do y'all meet? Like Sunday or Sunday and Wednesday?

Sunday just in the morning or Sunday evening also? Okay. So, like 20 nights, 20 Sunday nights, well, that's I would assume is acceptable, too. We just want to make sure that everything is somebody stays on top of it. and uh to talk about the buffer. You know, we were promised a really nice buffer behind Publix and that didn't take just three years or whatever. It took till now to where it's finally halfway decent buffer. They kind of just let it slip by the wayside. And so [clears throat] we got to stay at the back of a grocery store, you know, in our neighborhood. And I like Publix. I shop there. and there's no entrance onto Colombana, but their buffer was a long time coming. So, if they're going to do a buffer, we need somebody to make sure that they get the buffer done and done correctly on that. And let me ask you one question. [clears throat] The front part of the shopping center is not going to be affected, correct? Like Salvation Army, Chopsu in Salvation Army. Okay, that'll all stay there. Okay. Well, we just want to make sure, like I said, you stay if you if they have regulations to follow, stay on top of it because, you know, we don't want to come home and one day and well, there's a dirt road through the woods behind, you know, from the church where they're building out on Colombana because it was convenient. And with a four-way stop there, it's it's hardly a stop right now. We don't

need, you know, a couple hundred cars pouring out on the car and, you know, every other one's just running right through the stop sign. That's dangerous. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. with there being no no one further. Wh I spoke too soon. Hello, my name is Richard Fice. My wife and I live at 817 Colombiana Road and just had a couple of concerns. One being Colombana Road is a very unsafe road. Uh the traffic's too heavy. people are cutting through um driving very fast and there are children that live on that road and I would hate to see congestion increased especially during the construction phase if if there's any any um um leeway given to allow construction traffic to come from Colombana into the building site. that's that's just going to be very very unsafe. Um not not good for the road either. Uh, another concern is um the talk about buffer and I understand you say that the church is going to be between the edge and the and road but wasn't there supposed to be a buffer behind the edge because there's light. There's noise. we can live with a little bit of noise, but there's light at night and it's just just not a good um situation for a residential neighborhood, especially in a city like Comides on its quality of life. So, I think those are two big concerns that need to be addressed. I appreciate you listening.

Thank you. Okay. Anyone else uh from the public want to speak on this case? Okay. Seeing no one, we'll close the public portion and call the applicant. Um Mr. Hatcher, Mr. Dell, if you want to come up and answer some questions from the commission. I guess if you want to before we ask questions, if there are anything if there are any questions or issues brought up by the public that you want to address off the top that might short circuit some of our questions.

Definitely. Well, I'll try to address most most of them if I can and then if y'all have additional ones, we can do that. Um on kind of going back a little bit, but on November 15th, um it was mentioned by one of the neighbors, the church did go through the neighborhood, knocked on doors, um handed out flyers to the neighbors that were home, um put flyers in the mailboxes of the ones they could not get to, kind of telling some a lot of the things we talked about tonight, what they're planning on doing, make an introduction. Um that was where the construction traffic uh comment came from of we would try not to have construction traffic on Colombana at all at all. Um I think hearing the comments and discussing it back there, I think we can probably go ahead and say we're not going to have construction traffic on Colombana and just let's we can move on with that topic. That will be a we will not have construction traffic on Colombana. Um knowing the traffic concerns that are on that street as well already. Um the buffer as Miss Williams pointed out adjacent to Colombana um it is in our plans. We will be designed for the city. Um addressing the light pollution comment um the lady had earlier. Um the church will block out the parking lot light from the edge for the most part. It's a two-story volume. Um headlights are not going to go through the church to the neighborhood. We will have to pro provide a phototric plan like Miss Williams said um earlier to prov to prove we're not do having light pollution off of our site onto the neighborhood um to meet city standards. So it should solve a fairly large portion of her problems currently from headlights into her house being where she is. Uh, also talking about the

buffer, our playgrounds for the church are on that side adjacent to Columbia. And while a buffer is being provided for the neighborhood, buffers are generally very good for playgrounds as well because there are people that sadly enough like to look in playgrounds that children play. And so just as a safety thing, we tend to provide them anyway around playgrounds for children. Um, another question was the trees up on the corner of Carr and Colombana. Those trees at the current state of where we are on this project are not anticipated being all taken down. That's most of that's Alban Power ement currently. Um they may be underbrush taken out and replanted some, but for the most part that will remain undisturbed up on up on the corner of Carr and Colombana. As far as traffic goes, we submitted a traffic study to the city during this process that Skipper Consulting did. Uh Skipper came back with no based on the size building we're doing, the number of members, number of parking counts. Um there are no significant impacts to the neighboring streets and roadways around this development. They had one or two small items they would like to see improved and one of them was the turning radius into the edge. It's kind of a sharp little curve coming into the edge. They wanted to widen that throat out a little bit. Um there's a left turn already on Green Springs Highway into this development. It's one of the that are left uh which provides the stacking it needs for off of Green Springs coming into this development as well. So, we have run a traffic study. It has been provided to the city for their review. Um I'm not sure Miss Zori has looked at it at this point. Um

we talked about the service hours earlier. It's majority Sunday mornings. Um, there is no full-time daycare planned at this facility. They may have a mother's day out program, which as we know that's typically 9 to 12, 9 to one, a couple of days a week occasionally, but at this point in time, there is no full-time daycare uh plan for this church. Um, storm water was the other large topic that Mr. Cobb brought up. Um, and the majority of what he said I would 100% agree with. Um, there are water problems in the city of Homewood. We know where they are. We've all seen them. Um, it's our job to engineer this site, design this site to meet the city requirements with the which are the 100red-year storm going through this culvert, which is what the culvert will be designed at. It's our job to design the site, the mid city storm water requirements to make sure we are not increasing post-development flows over what's there today. Uh this site is 65 to 75% pavement already. Everything north of the ditch is already a parking lot. That's what we're putting back. Um the only impact is going to be the south side of the ditch between the edge and the buffer. That's really the main part of what's changing. That's where our underground detention is shown. It will have to be designed. It will have to take into account the backwater of the ditch. That ditch, the flood plane stops on the other side of Columbombiana, as I mentioned to some of y'all earlier. Um, we understand that's that's an engineering challenge and I don't disagree with Mr. Cobb on that at all. Um, however, if we meet pre-post leaving our site from everything that comes onto us and everything that goes through us, you know, we we can only chase it so far. Um, but when we leave the day we're finished, it will not be worse than the day we started. And that's per city

code. We have to do that no matter what. And that's kind of what our task is on this project. Um, that's probably most of the big topics that were brought up. Um, I do have the letter that they gave to the neighbors if any of y'all want to look at it just to see it. I don't mind handing it to any of you. Sure. And I'll go ahead and add we um one of the neighbors had concerns about noise and much like the headlight being blocked out by the building. Edge noise should be significantly if not almost all blocked out from by the building. It's going to serve as a buffer. Going back to drainage, um the building will we're going to employ roof drains throughout. So the building footprint will not really be putting any surface water on the property. It will all be piped underground. My plumbing engineer will work with Brian's team to figure out how best to route that. But it will be collected before it ever hits the surface

and then we're happy to answer any questions you guys have. You mentioned there's parking lot there now currently. So it's impervious generally. Generally it's broken asphalt. Really old asphalt, gravel, random. Is it draining actively into the into the cover? Um and Would you be draining any differently with obviously the improvements that you're doing? No. Right now that parking lot has a culvert that goes on the south side of it from Green Springs to Columbia. It also has a branch that runs up to the north around the north side of it which will be remaining through the whole project. We're not touching it at all.

In regards to the uh detention facility, um could you just speak some as far as I mean you've talked storm water already, but how will that work as far as um concern of how quickly it will go into the the drain itself? Um because we know the quicker it gets there the the the quicker it gets downstream and that's kind of when a flooding issue occurs

that yes so there's two you have to we'll have to look at it two ways so because we are so close to the drainage channel and there like Mr. Mr. Cobb said there is a large basin coming through us. So we'll have to look at it two ways. We'll have to run a pre-post for our site saying that our post runoff rate is less than our pre-development runoff rate. Then we will also have to go look at the timing of the overall basin coming to us because there's a balance. Matching rates on your own site is per the code. That's what we have to do. This one we're going to have to go a step further because we can't let that time up with everything coming through us. That's the game on this one. And so we will run an overall basin model to that point and then to probably the bridge at Colombana, I would I would bet. And that crossing there where the two culverts come together. And then we will run we will size our culvert under our pipe for those flows. And then we will time our water release to not negatively impact the water coming through us because what we don't want to do is our water gets speeding up and their water gets speed up and then we compound. So we've got to we've got to kind of meet off peak. So it's it's a little bit of a I can't answer your question directly because I don't know if we're going to go before it or after it, but we're going to meet pre-post for our site and figure in the timing of the basin through it as well. if that makes sense. That's very technical way to

Well, that's that's great. I mean, I think it just needed to be stated in the setting because obviously it's going to be a complexity of of the site. Um, the other question I had was just in regards to this layout overall. Um what what was given what was the consideration given to you know doing this plan versus say keeping the site more like it is now and having a pedestrian bridge for for vehicles or patrons parking on one side just having them walk across a pedestrian bridge.

That's a good question and it is an option that we looked at. Um, and my reason for not wanting to do that was I did not want to put the entire parking lot exiting and entering into the neighborhood through car. They should have an option to go to Green Springs to limit the impact on the neighborhood. If you put them all on the car, they're going right or left on car. If they go right, they're impacting the neighborhood. They go to Green Springs, they can go right or left. They and they have a lot of options to not impact a very specific part of the neighborhood every time. It just disperses traffic better.

Yeah. Well, it also helped avoid the situation where somebody pulls in from Green Springs into the edge parking lot, realizes there's no more spaces. They have to go back out on Green Springs, take a right, and come back in through car the car side. It just allows that continuous kind of cross movement without getting bottlenecked at one place or the other. And alternatively too, if if there was the pedestrian bridge though, you would have maybe the 41 edge shared parking spaces plus maybe 20 on the church's site.

There's there's currently 28 shown on the church's site. So you'd end up with about 16 trying to not impact the ditch at all. So you would end up with 5560 on the church side and then 100. So you would have 55 required basically to that's right enter enter exit through green springs. The other 100 would be required to go through car. Yeah. You'd have 106 or whatever going through car.

So you have two cases tonight. Um, just kind of not to get too far ahead of ourselves. I guess you want to vote on them one at a time. We have a reservey first and then the med development plan. Okay, that's correct. Um, if there are no further questions, I would entertain a motion on RS25-12-02.

Uh, the reservey. Yes. Make a motion that we approve the reservey. Second and second was Mr. Second. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Mr. Stamps. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Gulas. Yes. Mr. Sims, yes. Mr. Hener, yes. Mr. Underwood, yes. Mr. Ruspento, yes. Okay. Mr. Harwell, yes. Miss Wilcott, yes. And Mr. Roberts, I'm going to recuse.

So that um the reservey passes with an eight uh to zero vote. Um, and I would entertain a motion now on the amended development plan case AD25-12-03. Motion to approve M.

Okay. And I guess before guess along with that plan as it currently has doesn't have any or along so discussion about not having You don't have to plan anyway. There is no access. That That's correct. Not non-pedestrian. Yes, that's correct. That's correct. Okay.

I do have a couple of questions. I I didn't know how we were going to break up the two cases. Sorry about that. Um, Chairman Roberts. Um, so just additional question for the applicant would be, um, I do see based on this plan, um, it looks like as drawn, there's a there's a sidewalk on the Colombana side, um, is the applicant. It the where the sidewalk currently on Colombana ties into the edge. It looks like that connection is going to possibly be moved and relocated. That's correct. Yes.

Um and could you talk a little bit about that then? Would the new sidewalk um is is the applicant planning to construct that sidewalk to connect to the adjacent community? Yes. Great. Thanks. Um, and then also from that aspect, since this was such a big conversation around buffering, and I know y'all have made a promise to the neighborhood about that, could you talk a little bit about the landscaping that will be used along that segment? That's a tough one. Um,

can we could we possibly go to that drawing? You have a copy of that sheet. So that that buffer along Colombana is currently per code an undisturbed buffer as it sits today. Um we are proposing shrubs along the perimeter of the playground adjacent to the undisturbed buffer. Uh that will be there's it's a combination of switchgrass uh dwarf brford holly um glossia with um I'm reading the symbols autumn brilliance apple service berry don't quote me this I'm a civil not a landscape so Um, but I think the intent is to there are standards in the buffer requirements for the city of Homewood and they have to be evergreen. So, and then like you said earlier, they'll have to be six foot tall at the end of a year

and 8 feet at the end of three and 80% opa opacity at the end of three years. And does do these shrubs as proposed then meet that requirement? I I haven't I mean that's more closely once they land. Okay. I just wanted to put emphasis on that given the the commentary this evening. Obviously, you know, all those plans.

Well, I will I will say this. the the main focus of the landscape portion of a development plan submitt is meeting the tree ordinance issues, not so much the buffer issues other than calling them out where they're required. Um, so we show them as a generic what the city requirement would be and then we show the tree calculations. That's right. And you know this is where it will be but no material. So

and then we get way more into the tree requirements because the tree ordinance is pretty robust and very specific. So it's more tree ordinance related on this submitt more plant related on the city staff review during design if that makes sense. Uh, I would also point out that on the plan itself under note 8, it says all landscaping will meet or exceed city of Homewood landscape ordinance. So, there's there's that commitment up front as part of the the part of the plan itself to acknowledge that they will meet or exceed those requirements. So

that's correct. That's correct.

That's correct. That's correct. And then on top of that, we would add to the buffer requirements of the city. All the plant material you have listed here really is on the other side. It is for most exc

I just wanted to bring it up for discussion as as we look at that rightway segment which will include the sidewalk which will also face um the adjacent neighbors because as we move forward to you know if it does move forward um Well, well, regardless of recommendation of council, I think the more um that can be shown to the neighbors as an assurance, the better it will be. Um, just given, you know, past precedent that were referenced earlier in the meeting.

And I think and I think we're definitely open to that. I I think the whole intent of this development team and kind of what the church is trying to do is be a good neighbor and be part of the community. Um, I think they've to this point gone above and beyond to meet the neighbors and go doortodoor. And I think that'll continue through to the if we have the opportunity to go to the city council meeting um between now and then and we'll we're more than happy to provide additional information that we need to.

All right. If there's no further discussion, the motion by Mr. Harwell, seconded by Miss Wilcott to approve the amended development plan as submitted. That that's what the commission will be voting on. Yes. Proceed with Okay. Mr. Stamps. Yes. Mr. Gulas. Yes. Mr. Sims. Yes. Mr. Hener. Yes. Mr. Underwood. Mr. Ruspento. Oh, yes. Mr. Harwell, yes. Miss Wilcott, yes. And Mr. Roberts.

Um, again, I recuse myself on this case. Um, so the admitted development plan will go forward to city council with an 80 affirmative or favorable recommendation. Thank you.

Okay. Our last case for tonight is RS25-12-04 relating to 905907 and 909 Frisco Street. Would the applicant please come forward and and state your case? Hello again. Uh Matt Sims, uh Shaw Engineering. I'm the civil engineer on the project on behalf of Chase Fiser. Uh the developer is attempting to convert three existing residential lots into two slightly larger residential lots. So essentially we are eliminating two property lines and creating one down the middle.

Okay. Well, um thank you for that. Uh this is a public hearing. If anyone here from the public wishes to speak on this case, this will be opportunity.

Good evening. Um I'm Shannon Tindle. I live at 920 Irving Road. Um which my property I own I have a double lot. So, my second lot abuts um the farthest east part of this these three parcels. Um I sent Mr. Goodwin an email yesterday with

uh with my concerns um regarding uh this issue on the agenda. I have no issue with the three parcels being reszoned into two. Um my question is there are some current incumbrances on the deeds uh specific to development of the property. Um and I just want to make sure that those move on to the new uh

legals and Okay. Yes, this reservey will be recorded and on the reserve at the bottom in the notes it has it references the 23 the square footage okay

okay not that there are encumbrances not just the covenants there are specific encumbrances Okay. Yes, there are several specific incumbrances regarding forestation documents will be referenced in these documents and will not be overridden and will not be overridden in any way. No ma'am. Okay. They they'll be recorded with the so it runs with the land as you noted, right? Okay. Just making sure that that is going to be the case. Um and then secondly, I don't know if any plans or specs have been um no submitted on these parcels. Okay, we have not. This deals only with the land at this point.

Okay, just the parcel IDs. Um and then Mr. stamps. Um, has there been any zoning changes regarding ingress and egress for emergency vehicles um since we last had uh Frisco Street come upon us? I think that was earlier. Well, it was No, it was like two years ago, maybe. It first came up a couple years ago and then we had I think it was in 22. Yeah. 22 or 23. And then um again this past May is when we had a bunch of conversations again about the um with Mr. Fisher.

Oh, but it was not public at that point. No, no, these were just internal meetings. Okay. And what what was the And so um the houses will have to have sprinkler systems in them, right?

And um you know certain specifications. Um and that is and they received the labor from the um fire chief to allow that the houses be sprinkled sprinklers and that they wouldn't um have to um have have the ability for emergency vehicles to access the properties. You can't get any. It's It's barely bigger than a alley.

Okay. But since we weren't um the public was not aware of those issues that came forward, are we going to be notified when planning plans and specs come in so that we can make sure that um you know the park has there's no parking on the there is no street really. Um I mean I guess he's going to pay to extend the glorified alley that is Frisco Street. Um, and then sorry. Um, and then, uh, I just there's I I got I'm there's a lot of concern going forward. I just need to make sure that we're going to be, um, notified if and when these properties uh, have plans presented for development.

Typically not typ. Okay. So then let's Okay. Well, then we need to talk about some serious concerns because I'm um I am really not sure how the safety issue was overridden. Um and ma'am and ma'am, we're I'm sorry. There are not existing homes where there and where this is talking about. There are not existing homes. There are two, maybe three, right? But this is going past that. This is just empty. Well, it's dirt now because he cleared it out.

Huh? Right. You're taking it from three to two, the issue before the commission tonight deals only with the land itself and that's and whether to subdivide it from three to two. That's the issue before the commission. Can I get with you on how we can be updated on if and when plans are ever like does it does that you you know we we when and if building permits come through then we'll have we'll have your per your name and we'll we can reach out to you. Okay, great. So,

thank you. Let me put my name down. But to clarify too, that'll be notification of the plans being received for administrative approval. There won't be another board approval. That Yeah, that that's right. Yeah, that you're right. But who's going to make sure that the deed like do y'all look at the incumbrances on the deed? That that's right. when it comes through for a building permit, it will be reviewed with with the knowledge that those have limitations on whatever is proposed to be built. So, we'll have to make sure that the developers adhere into those limitations, right?

Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, Emily Spangler, 918 Irving. Um, I live uh bordering a small amount of the edge of the property. Um, I think some of the questions that Miss Tindell raised about sort of whether the incumbrances on the deed restrictions would continue were of concern as well as uh lack of clarity about if there were any changes in the maximal buildable area on the lots when they're re um computed. Uh, additionally, there was some concern on my part that this might be a means of skirting some of the tree ordinances. In particular, we've had some elements of bad faith with this developer in prior years where he removed trees without approval on the lots. And there's concern on my part that some of the lot reassessment may be a mean of further avoiding the intent of of the treeine preservation uh and support in the neighborhoods.

But yeah.

Okay. [clears throat] Okay. Anyone else uh like to speak on this case? All right. Seeing no one, um we'll close the public portion and Mr. Sims, if you could come forward and answer any questions. And again, to the extent you want to address anything that's been raised by the members of the public who have spoken, this would be a good opportunity.

Sure. Uh, in regards to um like like Mr. Goodwin mentioned this is simply to essentially draw a new property line to deal with the land and the deed restrictions um as mentioned discussed with Miss Williams are going to be recorded as part of the plat and are going to follow with any kind of building permits and development of the property itself. Any other questions? Okay, there no further questions. I would entertain a motion uh on

adoption of vote for second. No, Mr. Mr. Underwood, Mr. Gillis, I can't thank you one thought. Okay, Mr. Stamps. Yes, Mr. Gulas. Yes, Mr. Sims. No. All right, Mr. Henneer. Yes. Mr. Underwood? Yes. Mr. Ruspento? Yes. Mr. Harwell? Yes. Miss Wilcott? Yes. And Mr. Roberts?

Yes. So, your reservey is approved by an 8 to1 vote. Thank you, Mr. Sims.

Thank you'all. Okay, moving on. Um, your packet should have had uh a proposed calendar for um 2026 both in terms of application review deadline, application deadline, and planning commission meetings. Um, again, our meeting is typically well, it's always scheduled for the first uh tuesday Tuesday of the month. and um Fred as as we come up I mean I'm looking at the schedule the the schedule now to me I don't see sometimes it runs up the meeting will be the day before or after July 4th or Labor Day or holidays I don't really see that here

but um if anyone has any concerns about the the schedule um let us know otherwise I'd entertain a motion to approve We always end up pushing. Yeah. So the the fourth Yeah. The fourth would be a Friday. It' be the you know it' be the week I would be I would be fine with that. Is that something we need to do now, Fred, or is that something we could address kind of to I'm sorry. Go ahead. Pete July 4th is the concern and what is the issue? That's on a Friday is that

so it' be I think July is July 4th would be th Thursday before Oh, Friday before. Friday before. Yeah. Everybody travels norally around that. So the the feeling is that you some members may be out of town on July the 8th and you'd want to reschedu that to the the following the 15th. 15th is what the seventh would be 14th. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. uh from time to time it's necessary because Christmas parade things like that come up and we have to adjust that. This is primarily we we will put this on the city's website so that applicants will know generally what that is. That's that's the intent but there's certain flexibility and but we can go forward at this point if the commission's agreeable to change that to the 14th if there's any problem we'll we'll go forward and change that. We can always change other Yeah. as we as we go. Yeah. We're flexible. We just need to give applicants an idea,

you know, so they'll know. But but we can we can also work with the applicants to if there's some slight timing issue. So yeah, with the 14th, I'm going to put forward a motion to approve. Second. Okay. All in favor? Anyone opposed? All right. So that passes. Um, all right. Any communications before the from the staff rather before we adjourn?

Yes. one one you you were sent an email but just as a reminder this uh Saturday December the 6 between 9 and 12 uh there'll be um representatives from University of North Alabama will be conducting a u sort of a workshop session to for both the planning commissioners and the board is on the adjustment to discuss the roles and responsibilities and duties of those two bodies. So, um, hopefully it'll work out. Uh, and I think Emily's been handling that, but I think y'all hopefully have made a commitment and and are coming and hopefully they'll work out that you can that will be uh in the city council workroom uh between 9 and 12 this Saturday the 6. So, just encouraging those members to come if you can. I think it'll be educational and informative. So

yeah, and I took the training online a couple weeks ago. Some of the similar training was very informative and I think everyone would benefit from it. I know times an issue, but uh good stuff there. Yeah, we we haven't done it in a while and I think it's especially with kind of a new board, new composition of the commission. Mr. Kendrick conducted some a little while back. Yeah, the University of North Alabama does a great job. They they handle all the the CAPZO certifications, the certified Alabama planning and zoning official certifications and um they do they're very knowledgeable and they get really good speakers who are tough. They explain it to you.

It's good. Well, it'll finish before the championship games all start. So, [laughter] right as they start. And and lastly, staff would also echo the sentiments of the chair at the beginning of the meeting to welcome uh the new members to the commission. We look forward to working with you. And also welcome Amy, our uh sitting in her Well, that's right. She she was at the BCA meeting. I'm sorry. This is her first planning commission meeting. I'm sorry. Yes. She's had city here. So we she'll be joining us, I I guess, on a regular basis. All right. All right. Thank Okay. Okay, with that I'll I'll adjourn the meeting.