City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. The Tuscaloo City Council has now come to order. We ask everyone please stand for our prayer and then remain standing for our pledge of allegiance. Let's bow our heads please. Dear God, bless our proceedings tonight. Give us the wisdom to know what is just and the strength to do what is right. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Approval of the minutes. I will make a motion we approve the minutes. Second. Moved and second to approve the minutes. Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Minutes stand app to approve. Proclamation statements by mayor and council. Certainly, we want to welcome councelor Henry here tonight for his first meeting and congratulations on being sworn.

Thank you. Um, I do want to take a point of personal privilege and remind everybody that the mayor's cup is this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. Uh, we have our highest registration and we would love you to join 2,000 other people who will be running and walking across our city and raising money for a good cause for our atrisisk uh, academically at risk four-year-old students. So for more information, you can contact Tuscaloosa 311 or you can go to Tuscaloosa mayorscup.com. Do we have any announcements by council members? Mayor, I will not be at JS for several weeks, but I'm pretty easy to contact if people need me.

Sounds good. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The district 2 um quarterly town hall will be held this Thursday at Central High School at 6 p.m. Thank you, Miss Howard. Any other council announcements? I will not be a jacket. It sounds good. Mr. Bosy, do we have any agenda item comments by citizen? No, sir. Um, we have unfinished business. Clerk, this will approve off- premises retail beer and table wine licenses at Spixs Market. Move adoption. Second. It's been moved and second. Miss Frank. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening.

Good evening. I have ABC application for Spixs Market LLC doing business as Spixs Market. They are applying for a retail beer and a retail table wine for off- premises only. They are going to be located at 9:14 Queen City Avenue. The hours of operation is Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Wednesday 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Here's the aerial view. This is the storefront view. We also have the store layout. There are public safety concerns regarding this location which involve limiting parking and the hours of operation staying open till 12:00 a.m. from Thursday to Saturday. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will give their report and then the applicant for questions. Okay.

Thank you, Miss Franks. Director Blankley, you'll be reporting on behalf of Tuscaloosa Police Department.

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, mayor and council. Um, as stated before, uh, TBD has public safety concerns on this location. Um, one of the biggest things, the hour operations, it's going to too late hours for that area as well as the parking spots. Um, the other thing is the loading and offloading of um, when you have big semis coming in and trucks. Um, it's what it can do to traffic in that area. That area is not made um, for that. So, the loud noise, the the parking, um, and just that we're afraid that's going to be a hot area for a lot of college students and other young adults at night trying to come in to what is a quiet neighborhood area. So, we do have concerns of that. Um, we have addressed that with the applicant. Um, and then we also refer them to talk to their counselor, uh, councelor Busby as well. I'll answer any questions that y'all might have.

Any questions of director Blankley? Thank you. Thank you, director. Is the applicant here? If you would please come forward and give your name and address. My name is Abd Kawisi. Address, please. Uh the 914 Queen City Avenue. Okay. Please feel free to if you'd like to talk about your location. Yeah. So, it's going to be a convenience store that's mainly focused on wine and um a lot of craft beer and champagne. It's mainly a wine store. Any questions for me? Any questions from city council of the applicant?

Uh, no. I've I've met with he and his attorney. Mr. Sley, I want to thank you and your attorney. I saw him back there. Uh, they've been very forthcoming and meeting. You can see we have virtually a neighborhood meeting here behind him, but very forthcoming and meeting with us and trying to work towards a solution. So, we very much appreciate that. Yes, Mr. AOK, would you give your name and address?

Ken AOK, 11:07 23rd Avenue. Uh, Mr. Puzz, we would appreciate you helping us get that set up and the um, city staff to help us meet with the um, original city association over the building because we try to work with them and address a lot of the issues that they had with the um, with the store. Frankly, a lot of the problems that they that they have I I think are best described as they are opposed to any store in in the location and it is zoned for a convenience store in that in that spot. Um we have worked with them on hours of operation and are willing to do that some more if need be. Um, we've provided a letter uh that that uh went out to I believe all of the members as well as uh Miss Frank I think also distributed it um to the council that kind of gave an idea of what we're changes we're proposing the how the business would be would look from the street um things like lighting and and parking and changing the dumpsters and things like that to kind of make it fit into the neighborhood a little bit better. Um, Mr. Solace really wants to work with the neighborhood and and have this as more of a neighborhood store that the people living there will feel comfortable using and and uh and be his customer base. So, this the types of things you see in normal convenience stores are not what he's looking to do here. There's not going to be a whole lot of the um there's not going to be any of the

bright lights and the neon signs and all of that all that sort of thing. He's not having things like hats and clothes and um some junk that fills a lot of those kind of stores. We're really looking at things like nice wine, champagne, um craft beer.

We got a suggestion at our meeting uh for uh casserles, which I thought was a very good suggestion, and we're looking at having freezer section that'll have those kinds of of um ready-made items. Um, but in general, it's it's while falling under the classific classification of a convenience store, it's really looking to be more of a of a neighborhood market that specializes in wine, craft, beer. Appreciate your position, sir. How do you plan to handle deliveries being that there's not a lot of extra sight? I mean, with 18 wheelers normally with beer and soft drinks.

Yeah. So we can uh what we can do is we can have them park a little further from the location if it's too crowded and they can roll in the product from a block away or even two blocks away. Any other questions for the applicant or applicants representative? You may there may be following the public hearing additional questions. Sure. Okay. Thank you very much.

This is a public hearing. Anyone wishes to address city council, it's first come, first serve. Uh each person addressing the city council will have five minutes to address the city council. Okay. If you would please come forward and give your name and address. Good evening. I'm Cooper Shadic, uh 1514 Dearing Place, uh Tuscaloosa, and I'm speaking on behalf of the original city association. Uh, as you know, the original city association is a voluntary membership organization that encompasses the city's historic districts. We have over 300 members who are active, uh, but we represent the interest of all of those historic districts. Uh, and through an email to our membership, we said, you know, rather than take up time with each person speaking for five minutes, I'll speak. and I'm not taking away anyone's right to do so, but hopefully can capture all of the feedback we've gotten. Uh, so you'll sort of know where the residents are coming from. Uh, I wanted to start by thanking Ken AOK and his client for meeting with us. Uh, thank you, Mr. Busby, for putting that together because it was a good dialogue and, uh, they were very forthright in their plans and and we were honest in our feedback. Uh unfortunately there's no practical way to deal with some of our concerns uh which I'll get to and there's really no legal way based on the application as it's been filed to enforce those things even if we could. So uh as has been addressed already our key concerns are these traffic and limited parking. Um the overflow from that parking situation will impact uh the residential neighborhoods. Uh and it also is a

congested one of the only congested intersections in our area that would just be made worse. We have an increased number of pedestrians who are using the sidewalks and uh taking advantage of the beauty of the work people have put in to the downtown area and unfortunately uh this would have a negative impact on that. We talked about delivery logistics uh trash management. a convenience store generates a lot of cardboard boxes and a lot of trash from um restocking and that is going to go into dumpsters which they've agreed to cover but that doesn't change the sound made when they're dumped at sometimes ungodly hours. Um the hours of operation is part of our biggest concern. Uh the applicant explained that his desire was to be open later rather than earlier. There is no business that's open past six o'clock on that street and uh closing at six o'clock uh doesn't match his business plans. And again, there would be no way to enforce it if he said tonight that that's what he would do. the overall fit with a residential neighborhood of a convenience store that's selling primarily alcohol with a beer cave, tobacco, and smoke products just really doesn't fit into what we have going in the historic districts downtown. Uh we believe the larger issue, the part of the struggle that he's had and we've had is with um the downtown historic edge. There's probably some work that we could all do to make that better defined as to what's allowed and what isn't. And a convenience store as it exists and as they are in business today is not quite what we thought of them in the days when supermarkets weren't open late. Um they were convenient because the supermarkets were closed and we could get bread and milk and that's just not the case

anymore. So, uh, we'd love to be involved in any kind of conversations to address some of those definitional issues. Um, the, uh, the the biggest problem we, we tried to work out how best to enforce whatever we could work out on those things that we could work out. But unfortunately, it would involve a private agreement with us, which is cumbersome to do with such a large organization. uh and the only way you can enforce it is is through the application process and what's been represented I don't think that he's misrepresenting anything but so far as his permit is concerned if it's granted um as long as he's within the bounds of that he's okay and there's not anything you can do about it and that's that's the problem we have uh the restrictions he's said that he's willing to do aren't a part of the application and let's face it nobody's buying casserole at midnight. So, I I'm speaking for the OCA, but I want you to see the hands of those who are members who are here opposed to the application, and I certainly don't want to take anybody's right to speak, so I'll step down with 15 seconds left.

Thank you, Mr. Shadic. Is there anyone else that wishes to address their city council tonight? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. Any questions from the city council?

I don't have a question, mayor, but I want to say make a little statement. Um I'm really proud of um councelor Busby um before because I followed all this through his correspondence. And the thing I loved about what he did, he didn't just immediately say no. He said, "Let's let's talk to the applicant. Let's talk to the residents. Let's bring them all together and and um Councelor Busby, that's that's how it should be done. And I'm I'm very proud of you and how you've handled all of this and and um in in getting to this point here. I will say one thing, I am opposed to it um because um I know the applicant is a great person and and Mr. ACOK, I've rarely voted against any of your clients you brought up here, but I just think it's very detrimental to the the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Um the parking, as I've always said, it's a problem. There's big delivery trucks. They're not going to want to go two blocks down the road. um and to do that and and again there's um there's uh again I I think it has the possibility of creating a nuisance um to this uh to the neighborhood. So for that reason, not anything personal, please don't take it that way, but for that reason um I and the traffic congestion too, I I'm going I'm I cannot support this.

Thank you, Mr. Tiner. Any other council comments or questions? Thank you for the kind words, Mr. Connor, that temperance and tolerance has come late in life. Any other council comments or questions? Seeing none, voting on the uh application, Mr. Laneir. No, no, no. No.

Application fails. I know that many people are here tonight for this particular application and I think the council would agree with me. We will pause for a couple of minutes unless you really want to stay for the rest of the meeting. Um otherwise this would be an appropriate time if you need to go do something else. Thank you. I learned from you on that. You know, I would have said I would have said no. But you went through a lot of things.

Good to see you, man. Take care. Not a long time. Thank you. Yes, sir, buddy. Thank you. Hope to see mayor soon. That's the way. That's one way to clear a room. Yeah. Ain't it though? Oh, look at that. I see you want somebody to I think it'd be gross.

Yeah, just anybody. Oh, we got one person in back. There they go. I don't know where that camera. Yeah, that's important, too. Consent agenda. Clerk. This approves items A through D on the consent agenda. Move adoption. Second. Been moved and second. Voting, Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Consent agenda is adopted. Public hearings. Clerk. This sets the cost for demolition of the structure located at 360121st Street and authorizes the filing of a lean. So moved. Second. Been moved and second. Mr. Williams. Mr. Mayor, thank you for clearing the house. Makes it easier for me to speak.

Mr. Council, this is for the condemnation of 2714. Mr. Williams. Mr. This is Oh, wait a minute. Not yet. It is a public hearing, but we're just setting the cost of demolition and authorizing the lean for this one. Oh, I'm sorry. I was I was thinking this was the first early on that. I'm sorry. I can barely get when you when you announced it. I'm going to sit back down. This shouldn't take long. It shouldn't take long at all. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak for or against setting the cost of demolition? Seeing none, voting Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Cost of demolition's been set. clerk. This will order demolition of the structure located at 271431st Avenue.

So move second. Move and second now, Mr. Williams. This I'm telling you. All right. So this for the condemnation of 2714 31st Avenue condemned January 30th, 2026. This property has 45 housing code violations. The owner has been contacted, is aware of this hearing. The owner is aware that if it's condemned and demolished, the cost of demolition will be charged back to the owner. I do not believe the owner is here to represent. Okay. Any questions of Mr. Williams? Is the owner or the owner's representative of the property here tonight? Seeing none, this is a public hearing. Is anyone here wishing to speak for or against the demolition? Seeing none, voting Mr. Eman.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Demolition's ordered. parks. This orders demolition of the northeast structure located at 2806 Short 18th Street. So move second. Move and second. Mr. Williams. This is for the condemnation of 2806 Short 18th Street, also known as 281819th Street, the Northeast structure. This was condemned on January 30th, 2026. This property has 48 housing code violations. The owner has been contacted as aware of this hearing. The owner is also aware that if it's condemned and demolished, the cost of demolition will be charged back to the owner. The owner is not here to represent. Okay.

Any questions of Mr. Williams? Is there anyone here either owns or represents 2806 Short 18th Street? Seeing none, anyone here wish to speak for or against the demolition? Seeing none, voting Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Demolition's ordered. Clerk, this orders demolition of the northwest structure located at 2808 Short 18th Street. Some move. Second. Second. Move and second. Mr. Williams.

This is for the condemnation of 2808 Short 18th Street, also known as 281819th Street, the Northwest Structure. This was condemned on January 30th, 2026. This property also has 48 housing code violations. The owner has been contacted, is aware of this hearing. The owner is aware that if it's condemned, demolish, the cost of demolition will be charged back to the owner. Once again, the owner is not here to represent. Council, I have any questions of Mr. Williams? Is there anyone here that either owns or represents this property? Seeing none, is there anyone here wish to speak for or against the demolition? Seeing none, voting, Mr. Edman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Demolition's ordered. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Clerk, this adopts zoning amendment number 33. Move adoption. Second. It's been moved and second. Mr. Ponds. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening.

Beautiful Homes LLC is petitioning to reszone approximately 0.5 acres located at 2803 and 2805 Herman Avenue from SFR3 to SFR4. This is in council district 1. So, you can see the location of the property here. currently vacant zone SFR3. So they are requesting to reszone this to SFR4 to be able to reconstruct two houses that were previously demolished in 2020. So this is a shot of a picture showing how it looks today. And this is from 2019. So you can see there were two structures here on um previously and they want to go back with two structures. is they just can't make the uh lot size work in SFR3 and so they are requesting to reszone to SFR4. These are the renderings that they provided of what those might look like. Uh framework identified this as um traditional neighborhood core. So the zoning request as well as the intended use does conform to the to the plan. You can see that here on the future land use character map. And this was unanimously recommended for approval at the March 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. I can answer any questions y'all might have.

Any questions, Mr. Ponds? Thank you, sir. Is the applicant here? Yes, sir. If you would please give your name and address. Jquel Robinson, 467 Centerfield Drive. Any questions? Have any questions? I just want to say thank you, man. You're doing a lot of work in in district one. Come to district seven and I I I appreciate your you your your you and your company's willingness to invest in district one. So, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Councelor Eatman and councelor Howard and Veneer as well. Thank y'all. Well, the homes we saw were really pretty. Thank you.

The product is beautiful. So, we can't wait to see it develop. That's why they're called beautiful homes. Thank you. All right. All right. Well, since why don't you go ahead and tell everybody at home name of your business real quick because I can tell you're you're rocking and rolling and we won't Homes Group LLC. Yeah. If they needed to contact you, how would they do it? Uh cell phone number 2057659892. You can find me on Facebook, Jquel Robinson. I'm a local home builder and broker here in town. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. No doubt. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak for against zoning amendment number 33? Seeing none, voting, Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Zoning amendments adopted. Good luck. This adopts zoning amendment number 34. Some move. Second. Second. It's been moved and second, Mr. Ponds.

All right. This is a resoning request. Uh Chris Zagel, mayor petitions to reszone approximately point4 acres located at 4730 Harky Lane from SFR1 to GC. And this is in council district 3. Here's the location of the property. Um you can see it's very close to Rice Mine Road, close to that McDonald's. Um and Emanuel Baptist Church I think is just to the south. So you can see this portion of the property is in the county. So, they are annexing this portion of the property into the city and they want to reszone to GC to match the surrounding existing property that's in the city. Here's a location from Harky Lane and I just told you all of that. Um, and the reason that they're doing this is they want to um build a vet clinic. So, they are consolidating the lot and um going to move forward with a vet clinic here. So, framework identifies this area as corridor commercial. So the zoning does conform to the plan as well as the intended use and you can see that here in the future character map. Um and this was unanimously recommended for approval at the March 2026 planning commission meeting.

Any questions, Mr. Ponds? Thank you. Is the applicant here? If you would please come forward and give your name and address there one day.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councilman, my name is Peter Hill. I am the architect on this project. My address is uh 2011 Broad Street, Sweet 401 Rome, Georgia 30161. Any questions? My only question earlier was you're not going to have like overnight uh outdoor. No, that there will be So, this is an expansion of an existing business in your community. The Medical Center of Tuscaloosa, Animal Medical Center. It's going to offer them a lot more surgical uh capacity and diagnostic. They do have a little bit of indoor boarding, but no outdoor boarding. Sounds good. Good bets. Thank you. You're welcome.

Is there anyone here wishing to speak for or against? Seeing none, voting Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Zoning amendment number 34 is adopted. Good luck. Thank you. Resolution ordinance is not of a general nature or permanent operation. Clerk, this authorizes amendment number one to the professional services contract with Paragrin Technologies Incorporated. So, second move and second voting. Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes a contract for professional engineering with TTL Incorporated. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes a professional engineering contract with Hazen and Sawyer PC. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded by Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes amendment number one to the minor public works contract with Tesco Incorporated. Motion. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Freman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk, this authorizes a minor public works contract with Chip Griffith Construction LLC. So move. Second. Booen. Second by Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk.

This will authorize a minor public works contract with RCS Waterproofing LLC. So move. Second. It's been moved and second by Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk, this authorizes the purchase of equipment, supplies, or services from Trailer Store Plus LLC. Move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes the purchase of equipment, supplies, or services for the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Resolutions adopted. Ordinance of resolutions of general nature permanent operation for introduction. Clerk. This annex is approximately 0.7 acres located east of2053 Grand View Grand View Drive to the corporate limits of the city. Move an option. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Call unanimous consent. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Streetman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Annexations adopted. Clerk, this amends exhibits A and B of section 1942 of the code of Tuscaloosa. So move. Second. It's been moved and second voting Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Off unanimous consent. Second. Moved and second. Voting Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Amen. Exhibits are amended. Clerk. This adds sections 2076 through 2100 of the code of Tuscaloosa. So move. Second. It's been moved and seconded by Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Go here. Call for unanimous consent. So move. Second. Second. Moved and second by Mr. E. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Sections are amended. Auditing accounts.

This authorizes the payment of bills. Pay Gib's bill. Second voting Mr. Laneir. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Bills are paid. Citizens comments and other communications. Any citizens wish to address or see council tonight? Yes, sir. If you would please come forward and give your name and address.

I'm Jim Knox. Um current president at the local 351 Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My address is 1832 Carriage Heights. Um, mayor council, I always come and um, and cordially invite you guys to our anniversary. So, this is our 79th anniversary. I know you'll be there. So, yeah. Just want to give everybody the option to come um, celebrate with us. Um, like I said, hot dogs, hamburgers, real good time. Um, have some of our officials, AFL CIO, president, different people. Um, Daniel Flippo, which is our um, district director. So, we'll have a full house down. So, we want to quickly invite all you guys to come down and see, too. I know everybody from every different walk of this town works down at the plant. What's the date you saw? Um, it's May 1st. May 1st, which is next Friday. So, we look forward to seeing you guys if you're available. What time? What time?

Um, start at 5:30 in the morning till 5:30 in that evening. I'll pick up I'm going to pick up Mr. Laneir about 5:15 a.m. We'll head there for Christian. So, we'll be ready. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Knox. Good to see you, man. Take care. Anyone else wish to address city council tonight? Seeing none, subject to exercise mayor veto an ordinance of general nature of permanent operational applicable departments hereby order to otherwise implement council policy to stay active. Move we adjourn. Second. Moved and second to adjurnn. Voting Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.