Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

That's it. Thank you.

We'll follow your truth after the hero.

Okay.

We're going to call to order the August 2026 meeting of the Homewood Planning Commission. If we could please start with a roll call. All right. Mr. Henninger.

Here.

Ms. Wilcott. Here. Mr. Harwell. Here. Mr. Respinto. Here. Mr. Underwood. Here. Mr. Stamps.

Here.

Mr. Sims.

Here.

Ms. Childs. And Mr. Roberts.

Here, thank you. All right, so next on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from July 14. I reviewed them. They looked good, as always, to me. If there were no edits from the Planning Commission, I would entertain a motion to dispense with the reading and approve them.

I will make a motion to approve. Second.

Okay, any opposed? There being none, the minutes are approved. Moving on. Communications, our Vice Chairman, do you have any communications today?

Just want to say thank you for everyone for attending this, and especially our scouts from Troop 95 here in Homewood. Thank you for taking an interest in the workings of Homewood. Appreciate you all.

Thanks for being here. I have no further communications at least. Well, I'll say this, I guess, because I try to repeat this every once in a while. Both cases tonight are development plans. Our body is a recommending body on development plans, which means we will vote at the conclusion of the presentation one way or the other, and then the case will go to city council for final approval or disapproval. So I just want to say that up front. With regard, we have a pretty full house tonight. I don't know how many people plan on asking questions or making statements during the public portion of these hearings. I would ask that we try to keep our statements brief. Three minutes is typically about as long as we're willing to go. Also, if you can avoid repetition, I think the applicants are gonna try to address some of the concerns that have been raised before today, or at least up until this meeting. But if you do have a comment, just again, just try to avoid being repetitive in the comments. We appreciate that. All right, with that said, there's no old business. We're gonna start with new business. The first case is FD 260801. The addresses are 600, 601 University Park Place, 1601 Parkview Lane. The applicant is Landmark Development Services Company. The owner is Sanford University. If whoever is here to speak on this case, if you could come forward and explain what you're trying to do. Yes, yes, and that's true for anyone who comes up to the podium. If you're speaking either as an applicant or as a member of the public, if you would state your name and address into the microphone and also write it on the pad, we'd appreciate that for minutes purposes. Thank you.

Also, just before we begin, just for everyone speaking, members, audience, whoever, make sure you're speaking directly into the microphone so everyone here can hear and also everyone online can hear. That way everyone's comments are heard and everyone can participate and we all know what's going on. Thanks.

Thank you. My name is Colin Coyne. I have the privilege of serving as the Vice President for Finance and Business Affairs at Samford University. And our address, as you know, is 800 Lakeshore Drive. I wanted to really of our campus. What it is is simply there's a student housing on Samford South Campus next to our existing track and field complex, which is not going to go anywhere. Why are we doing it? We're doing it because we've become among the most sought after Christ-centered universities in the country in a brutally challenging market in higher education. Our record of discipline growth stands in contrast to many other universities right now. It's driven by our fidelity to purpose. It's driven by our outstanding student experience and the outstanding amenities that we have. Our undergraduate residential ethos is a very important part of why Samford has 91% first to second year retention rate in a market in private higher ed that's only about 77%. And make no mistake about it, being part of this Homewood community is a big part of that. The designs you're going to see today sort of bear out the need, but that really came from listening carefully. We have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in conversation with our home and community, carrying feedback from the Creekside conversations, and then continuing on as active participants in the city's master planning sessions, partnering with environmental colleagues to restore natural habitats, systematically selling homes north of campus, and in search of new and creative ways of furthering our already existing excellent relationship with home and high school. Now some of the design elements you will see in the plans would include no encroachment on existing boundaries by ensuring that our students' housing is not as close to Shades Creek as the existing building. Similarly, the maximum height is below that of the existing structure. With no offsetting non-student related amenities, traffic on Lakeshore will actually drop. And we're going to further ensure that by making sure that the parking permits that are issued will not allow those students to then cross Lakeshore in the mornings and park on the north side of our campus. They have to stay on their portion of campus. Drainage and retention is being addressed, and other features have been retained from our prior conversations. And if you look at light pollution as an issue to the creek, it's reduced by both the building structure, forward orientation to the track and soccer complex, and using low profile lighting. In short, tonight provides additional student housing on our existing campus with the same level

of details we've exhibited elsewhere on our campus one which was named among the 35 before we ask you questions we're going to open it up to the public and then once that's closed we'll bring you back up and ask yes sir thank you thank you um this is a public meeting um we're going to open up the public portion of this meeting uh anyone who has to speak on this case this is your opportunity to come forward uh keeping in mind the um some of the some of the preparatory remarks i had regarding well no one's going to be repetitive yet because no one said anything yet but Again, if you could state your name for the record.

Thank you. My name is Lant Davis. I reside at 140 University Park Drive, which is just to the west of the proposed development. I have three questions. The first is, I noticed in the development plan there was some mention of storm drainage amelioration. I'm interested in the details of that. Will there be particular structures that would help contain the runoff into Shades Creek? The second question is, are the buildings stressed for additional stories? so possible future construction or addition to the structures. And the third is, have the architects given any consideration to using anti-bird strike glass in the construction of the buildings? Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Lindy Neighbors. I live at 1745 Murray Hill Road. I believe you guys received my comments already, but for the folks that are back here, my primary concern, as I stated there, is environmental stormwater runoff into Shades Creek, increased litter, increased chemical runoff from increased hardscape and parking. That's one. The second question that I have for Sanford is you guys just did a huge dorm build on campus. And I drove around the campus on Sunday and I noticed that every dorm on Sanford's campus is three stories. So my question is why did you not put extra stories whenever you're building new stuff there? Just why is it okay to do that across Lakeshore but not on main campus? And then lastly, I do have some issues still with the lack of transparency and not speaking out to the community earlier. I found out about this. saturday so you know and maybe you did and i missed it and if i did that's my fault thank you

My name is Mario Nieves. I live at 224 Hall Avenue here in Homewood. I have no problem with this development. I attended a small liberal arts college that was two capacity with dorm rooms. My senior year there we had to do five people in a dorm room, meant for two, meant for three. It was ridiculous. It forced a lot of us to go out to expensive rental housing. And it just wasn't the experience that I enjoyed my freshman, sophomore, and junior year. I believe that students have the right to be on campus. It's safer for them. It gives them more of that community college feel. I do believe Sandburg is a very important part of the Homewood community. And they can come out and enjoy what our parks, our shopping centers offer. But the college experience should be on campus, in my opinion. Also, on another note, rental prices have skyrocketed in the city of Homewood since I moved here in 2012. A lot of that, I believe, has to do with the lack of dorm rooms or other housing in the area. A person would rather rent their house for a high amount than sell it. It just makes sense. If you go to West Homewood right now There are two bedroom, one bath houses that are renting for well above $2,000 a month. That is ridiculous. The new development that was put into West Homewood has signs everywhere that says, we welcome roommates. Of course they do. They'd love for two different students to come in from two different sets of parents and pay an enormous rent amount. With that said, I fully support this. Stanford needs dorm rooms for their students.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Kristen Trowbridge. I live at 120 Gillen Drive. I'm a resident of Homewood, obviously. I also served on the Homewood Environmental Commission for four years. I served as chair for three. I appreciate the work you're doing. I realize that housing is a crisis everywhere, not just in Homewood, and that students need a place to live. I agree that it'd be wonderful if every student could live on campus. A lot of our students attending in-state schools never get that opportunity starting with freshman year. Just the way it is, it's unfortunate. I love the questions that were asked and the concerns. One of my thoughts as I'm looking at the plans would be the pictures show a lot of trees in the back on the south side of the south campus that Samford currently owns. I'd just be curious how much tree removal becomes part of this plan. I wonder if there's any hope or plan for LEED certification as part of this plan. I wonder if Samford might consider permeable surface in the parking lot. I think construction and progress are ongoing issues, but I think it's becoming obvious that we have to build differently than we have in the past. So I hope that Sanford uses this opportunity to do that. I definitely have concerns over Shades Creek, with Shades Creek and just the protection of that. It'd be really cool to see Sanford do some creative problem solving here and to maybe help mitigate current issues we have with stormwater. and sediment buildup that's all around our city. Shades Creek is so terribly eroded now along the sides. Any sort of new construction that adds impermeable surface is just gonna make that worse. So I hope this is an opportunity to not only provide housing for students, but to also mitigate current problems and lead the way for very sustainable and creative building and construction in the future, thank you.

Okay, if there's no one else coming forward, we'll close the public portion. Well, it looks like we have one more.

Hi, I'm Dee Willis from 1781 Murray Hill Road. The plan says that there are like 900 existing and new parking places as part of this plan. And I'd like to know how many of those are existing and how many are new. There's a huge difference in the water drain off if there's five existing and 895 new. Some of the environmental concerns have been brought up before, but this is also a habitat for our salamanders. And I realize they are not endangered species, but their numbers have been declining. And every year we have a festival and close the roads just to watch the salamanders cross South Lake Shore into the Shays Creek Lake. In addition, the gentleman said that traffic on South Lakeshore would actually be reduced because of parking. And I'm wondering if they're going to do shuttles or exactly how they plan to get the students across the street. I have envisions of 8 o'clock traffic and young adults running across the street trying to make the light to get to class while we're trying to get to work. I really didn't understand that statement that he made, and I would like for that to be addressed. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we're seeing no one else coming forward. We'll close the public portion of the hearing. Dr. Coyne, are there any more questions from the Planning Commission?

And as a reminder with both of you at the mic, please be sure to just speak directly into it. You can move it to your face if you want to come forward to it together.

Yeah, Dr. Coyne, we'll just start off with, and you heard all the questions and comments made, and I hope in your additional presentation you'll address.

I was talking as quickly as I could.

No, but one thing I think that we wanted to hear was just a discussion of what you're doing, what the building's, the plans are, what exactly is being built or planned to be built, just so we have an understanding of that.

Sure. If I may address a couple of questions as a prelude and then I'll turn it over. Sure. The last two buildings we built on campus were the first and second ever LEED-certified buildings, so that technology is something that we are very much on top of and appreciate. As I also mentioned, we are working actively with our partners on environmental concerns, including helping map and restore some of the salamander habitat, but that's at the other end. That's on the east side of the property. Some of the technical questions regarding parking spaces and storm drain specifics, I'll leave to my colleague. And then one other question came up. Oh, yes. What we will be doing is we currently run shuttles back and forth across the street in the mornings. That's what we'll be doing to ensure that there's not sort of that... that that additional um pressure and the safety we are very concerned and we're looking at long-term solutions to the general crossing there in front of our west gate and this helps catalyze some of those conversations as well a lot of folks don't realize where the evacuation uh location for home at high school as well so we are we are very much actively talking about that intersection on a number of fronts

Yes, so there were some questions about detention and runoff.

I'm sorry, before you, if you could just give us your name. Let's take your name and address as a record.

My name is Caleb Martin with Cadre Engineering. So, yes, there were several questions about detention, runoff, those sorts of things. Our intention is to meet. The city of Homewood stormwater ordinance which requires I guess water quality aspects that will treat water leaving the site removing TSS and Trash and those sorts of things from the parking lots Which is general engineering practice so we intend to Intend to treat those and meet those standards. The parking, we are currently over-parked per code. I think we're showing somewhere around 70 extra spaces than what is required. And those are, I guess, distributed in the existing parking area, as well as a few new areas that will be provided.

And also, Mr. Chairman, we've reviewed all those documents that they submitted to us, and we agree with their findings in terms of range.

Hello, my name is Stuart Zader with Landmark Development, partnering with Samford on the building of these two student housing projects on the south campus. I just wanted to address two comments. One, Mr. Davis, I believe is his name, asked a question about structuring it for vertical expansion. We have no intentions of designing the buildings in a way that they can sport additional structure above. so what you see on the plans is the intention of what we would be building here another comment from miss neighbors was talking about appreciate she drove around campus as we were involved as cadre was with Samford in the delivery of the new freshman housing Gaston Man, I just wanted to point out that that is a five-story structure along the Buck Plaza. Vail is four stories facing south, and I believe West Village is four stories east. Other dormitories, residence halls are three stories, but there are existing housing that are taller than three stories on campus. So just wanted to offer up those items.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think one question that we had, who will be owning these buildings and operating them? And will it be a ground lease? And who owns the other building, the other commercial building that's on the land? I'm sorry, commercial buildings? Is it DAXCO? Is that, that's an existing building?

Oh yes, yes, I'm sorry. The Sanford Endowment owns University Park Place. So Sanford owns, through its endowment, University Park Place. And this will be structured as a ground lease with restrictive covenants that will travel with the land. It will be built and financed and operated by landmark development subject to the terms and conditions of the ground lease, which allows us to make sure that we can retain a lot of our faith-based preferences and limit it to use by students.

Just following up, so I understand, too. It's a lease arrangement. Is there a time limit on that, a 20-year? What happens when the lease runs out?

That's still being worked on, and the reason for that is we want to ensure that the language you put in our ground lease meets Fair Housing Act standards as well. So it's not as simple as saying, here's a ground lease and here's your conditions. We have to make sure that we don't exercise or participate in any economic benefits nor risks to maintain the level of non-control we need for both the financing purposes relative to the university's balance sheet, but maintain the control of what goes on there. So for example, a covenant would be absolutely no alcohol in common areas. That's consistent. All of our students attending there because of our policy that students under 21 have to live either on Sanford in Sanford residence halls or on Sanford land, that means that about 75% of our students need housing. In the absence of this, that number would get down to about 62. So all those students, by being under 21 and Stanford students, are still subject to our honor code. So there's lots of ways we can exercise control to assure that that is consistent with Sanford, that the actual ownership structure for financing reasons will be a ground lease and owned and operated. So you know, the Collegiate Housing Foundation owns the new freshman residences we did in the middle of our campus. But because it's in the middle of campus, that rolls up onto our balance sheet.

So it runs, you said, it runs with the land. So Sanford owns the land. Landmark owns the buildings. Oh, I'm sorry.

The lease, is there at some point? Yes, there's a point at which the lease would expire, whether that's 30 years, 50 years. But by running with the land, we would want to have a right of first refusal to purchase. And even if a subsequent purchaser were to buy it from Landmark and it wasn't us, the conditions of the ground lease would still hold. So any new buyer would have to follow all of that. conditions we have in the ground lease as well so again we we are never going to sell the property underneath it and nor do we want things going on out there though being consistent with our campus you would anticipate it it's not permanent but nothing's permanent but it's intended uses for student housing so 20 years down the road if Sanford's still around you would anticipate that would still be used for housing Well, I can tell you, after 185 years, I don't want to be the guy that kills the university in 20 years. But no, yes, sir. I'm just saying, Landmark can't come in and change the use. No, they cannot. They cannot. And one of the other questions this has been asking sort of public forums is, we like having a whole strata of housing available to our students. And so... Again, this would only take up to 75% of our students, not 100%. And that's just undergraduates, not graduate students. But let's say, in the worst case scenario, we were to shrink. This gives us flexibility of taking some of our oldest facilities off online. So in terms of the stratification of our housing and options for our students, this fits very, very nicely with the affordability aspects that we want to make sure we're presenting to our students as well. But no, sir, it would stay under Sanford's control regardless of who actually owns the buildings.

I've got a few questions, thank you. With these 494 beds, what will the total number of beds on campus be after that? It would be right on 3,500.

It would be right around 3,500 total beds on campus against an undergraduate student population of about 4,500.

Are you planning on all of the existing beds in operation?

Yes, sir, because again our goal is to have about 75 percent of our students living on campus sex creates the best atmosphere to that generates The highest retention has been shown to have a better social integration environment. About 75% keeps that ethos, especially around our faith mission. And so the idea is to keep targeting around 75%. So when we built freshman housing this year, it only got us up to about 72%. Next year it will be 68%. We found the sweet spot again. That's one reason why our attention is so high in our part of her graduation rates in a place where they are so high as this maintaining that balance. So yes, so we try to keep it in that same range. Right around that 75%.

But then you doing it. How many of those would be accessible. How many of the units. How many of the new users would be accessible for any students that might be wheelchair users?

Julie's partner with Davis Architects, so she can probably...

I'm Julie Potter with Davis Architects. The accessible units would meet the code. It's around 5%. And then we have to meet fair housing as well. So we have type B units. There's a lot of requirements to meet all the accessibility. And we'll meet all the site accessibility as well.

I have a couple of questions about transportation, if we could get back to that. Your document says that the proposed development will generate 87 new trips during the AEMP, 43 trips during the SUOPE, and 81 during the PDMP. That's 211 trips. for 500 students going back and forth to campus, probably more than once a day. I have a hard time reconciling how these students are going to be leading the class, because it doesn't sound like they're expecting to be driving. There is no bridge there. So tell me, how are the students in this class and back?

Earlier I mentioned the shuttle services and stuff. We currently run a shuttle back and forth to that side of campus. The SAM trams, you may have seen them. But we concentrate those particularly around the early hours when the Homewood High School is coming in session and around the end of the day when they're coming across. So we can control those schedules because we control 100% of that. And so yes, our students obviously will be coming and going at other times during the day and in the evening, but to make sure that we address the congestion, you also may recall that there's also an opportunity to add a turn lane that we think can substantially improve the traffic back up that intersection as well. If I go back to one of the things, John, that you mentioned regarding accessibility, we also have the ability in the rooms, we plan into them a number of singles and others for those who also have ADA accommodations as well. We address the physical accommodations, but also the ADA for those who require a more private living unit, we have that available as well. And we can control that as a fungible number based on the number of students each year.

The plan mentions the potential for a pedestrian bridge. What, in your opinion, needs to happen for that to become a reality?

Yeah, ask the people in Vestavia. We are already speaking with some of our representatives at both the state and the national level We think there's, regardless of doing this, we think there's a safety concern there. It's a longstanding one. We've spoken with the city as well to make sure that anything we do, there's something the city would want to see us do. I think it's not a matter of if, I think it's a matter of when. And our goal would be to have it become available as soon as possible concurrent with this. Ironically, having this probably bolsters the case for the need for the bridge. We feel the bridge is there necessary. Necessary regardless you're probably looking at you know a 24-month process before we'd be in a position because we're dealing with aldot who We were having to span, have a long span across the creek to ensure there's no issues there. But I think you're probably looking at 24 to 36 months before you'd be in a position to really move on that funding. And by the way, that's just a guess on my part. I couldn't even begin to tell you what folks are going to do.

I understand. Last question, I promise. I know you've seen the letter from the Malones who live at 504 Lake Shore. They raised a lot of issues, and one of you, someone on your team said you would be responding to the points that they raised. And I would just encourage you to make sure, particularly before this goes to the council, that you in fact do respond to the points that they raised in their letter. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I think we'll be covering that.

We don't have to address it now, but you mean respond to the Malones? Sure. Or do you want somebody to speak to that at this moment? I'm sorry? Oh, great. We'll respond now.

Good evening. My name is William Johnson. I'm with Johnson and Company. We're the landscape architects. I think there were really two major questions. One was the calculations for the 400 plus or minus trees that were required. That was taken basically a survey of all the trees in the parking lots, around the buildings, the counts. There's also some areas that were not surveyed. And as we move forward, there will be a tree survey if it's required. But what we do in those areas, as we've done for other projects, is you'll estimate the square footage natural area. And then you'll take a square footage of the tree to get a count. But then all that will be verified as we move to the construction documents. And then prior to the approval, all counts will be made. But we did make those counts based on the existing conditions. I'm trying to think of the second question. Oh, the tree clearing. Caleb can respond to that a little bit better. There will be no tree clearing. Well, it'll be limited. I'll let Caleb speak to that. It'll be limited, be minimal. I'll just say that. I'm not gonna say no trees will be removed. But also the counts did not account for the pine trees on the slope. There's significant pine trees on that slope, but there's also areas of existing trees

within that at the top and then actually along the parking lot on the east side there's existing the slope that was planted so all those are natural wooded areas will remain you may know that homewood is in the middle of the comprehensive planning process and probably the one word that comes up more often than homes is trees so we just need to be real sensitive to that so thank you

Yeah, and there was one comment about the numbers of the trees that were proposed for this project based on the overall requirement for the site. That really is because the overall site includes the soccer field, includes the office building, all the parking, and this is such a small area of the site. So in proportion, the new trees are in proportion to the area of the new development where the overall site requirement, which we do meet, includes all the surrounding property.

In response to the tree clearing, the site that we're putting the buildings on and the parking lots by and large is already grass. The idea is to maintain as much of a tree buffer between, I guess, the development and Shades Creek as possible. not gonna say there's no tree clearing because I think there are some landscape trees along University Park place that will be removed and replaced but like I said the tree clearing doesn't characterize I think what will happen here it's more of a selective timbering effort

I just have a couple follow-up questions. Brian, could you go back to that previous slide that shows the site plan? There was a question from a resident regarding new parking, and this actually kind of shows. Could you just kind of just again highlight the areas where the new parking is going to happen and estimate how many new spaces that is versus existing?

Sure, so obviously we are enhancing University Park Place and providing new parking stalls along it to serve both buildings. We are also providing a new parking lot the east side of the two buildings that will serve both the residents and some of the retail and then we are providing a another I guess two more bays of parking along the south side of the larger parking lot to better facilitate the development as well estimated new parks This is an estimate. Let's say 200. It's not an official count, but.

But of the, I mean, I guess what I visually was looking at myself and just wanted confirmed is that most of the parking stalls are really existing versus new. Many of them are, yes. And then I just had a couple of other questions involved. We were talking some about the pedestrian bridge and about traffic. I think one is, it sounds like the pedestrian bridge is a complementary but separate project, obviously, in conversation with Aldot. Just wanted to confirm, because it was a question, if that goes forth, that would be consideration of that being public. amenity not a private amenity for Samford alone and that also that there would be subsequent public probably comments and in in meetings related to that because it would be an aldot coordinated project is that does that sound accurate yes okay thanks In regards to traffic, I was looking at the traffic study and the counts. I was just wondering, obviously with it being near the high school and Lakeshore being relatively busy, if also crash data was looked at. You talked about some intersection improvements. I saw that a couple of intersections were You know, numerated in particular, I was wanting to also wondering if if you had looked at further west, you know, towards like Cornelius and so forth and looked at crash data just so we can all be in the same conversation as far as traffic impact.

Again, Stu Zader with Landmark. No, we haven't looked at crash data yet at this point in time. Happy to work with the city engineer. And taking that further, as you can see, was a final draft for review. So subject to the comments we got here, we were planning to have the engineers run additional data as requested by the city. So we'd take a look at that. That's great. And the other intersection.

And I think to your point to someone mentioned previously about just learning about this project, and I just kind of wanted to let it be known as well. This is really the first step in a recommendation for what lies next. There will be another public hearing and really that, you know, a final vote wouldn't even occur for this project until pretty much October after because it's got to go to council and so forth. So in response to that comment previously, I just wanted to respond with that I want to go back to one more thing which was mentioned which was reference to the potential to add stories and that question was addressed that there's no future plans I looked at, it seems like the 709 feet is the current DAXCO height to the parapet. This would be 715, but actually DAXCO goes up to 724 with their mechanical penthouse. So at 709, is that something that would be proffered as the max height of the structures?

715 I was gonna say yeah yes that would be the maximum height that's correct and go ahead do you have another no that was really everything that I wanted to go through thank you and Mr. Underwood asked us to address the Malone's I think it was their comment or Miss neighbors I have no doubt here can address lighting on the site so I thought we'd just address that

Good evening. Tony Dodd, Hays Seawood Electrical Engineering. One of the comments from the residents was concerned with the glare and the lighting trespass from the property. We will be using a small pedestrian style lighting along the pathways of the parking. The bug rating, I think you mentioned bug rating. We are dark sky compliant on all our fixtures. They will be, I think we have addressed it before on the north parking deck. One of the neighbors was concerned about the lights coming on and off. Those lights will dim down in the evenings when the parking lots are unoccupied. So at a certain time at night when those parking lots are unoccupied, they'll go down. When that person leaves, the lighting will come up and once the pedestrians leave, they'll come back down to a lower percentage output. We'll be able to provide the lighting calculations for the entire site. That's vertical and horizontal foot candles at all property lines and present that to you as well.

I do have one follow-up question, which based off your expertise, you may know the answer to. There was a comment from a resident about the... anti-bird strike um glass and i know that we since it's near the shades creek corridor you know herons owls are all um and other birds are frequent is is that any type of consideration that's been made to this point for the lighting sorry it was not It's actually not for the lighting, it's for the structure. It was just anti-bird strike glass. It was something new to me, but I did hear it from a resident, so I wanted to see if it was something that had been considered.

I'm Julie Potter with Davis Architects. We haven't gotten to that level of detail yet. One good thing about Sanford windows typically is they have mullions, which reduces the bird reflections, seeing the sky in the windows. And then, so the mullions help, and then we don't usually use that real reflective glass. So we can definitely look into that and work with the city to make sure we've addressed that.

yeah i mean i think again it's not anything that's on code but i mean you know given the partnership i appreciate every all that that you look at um so thank you okay if there are no further questions from the commission i'd entertain a motion to approve the case for a vote

And I guess subject to the proffer that the building is limited to 715 feet.

And also the acknowledgement that there will be a need for a re-survey of the subject property that would come back before the Planning Commission that re-surveys.

I'll make a motion to approve.

All right. Mr. Respinto. Yes. Mr. Underwood. Yes. Mr. Henninger.

Yes.

Mr. Sims.

Yes.

Mr. Stamps.

Yes.

And Mr. Roberts.

Yes.

Yes, so the applicant, this will go forward to city council with a seven to zero positive recommendation, thank you. All right, our next case is another development plan, FD26-08-02. It involves 404 and 408 Scott Street. The applicant is Owen Ferguson. The owner is Frank Damiani. If whoever's here to present on this case will come forward and present your case, we'd appreciate it. Yeah, you can tell him where to go and he'll drive for you.

And just as a reminder, just speak as closely to the mic as you possibly can so everyone can hear. I just want to make sure.

Perfect. Good evening. My name is Owen Ferguson. I am a Hall-Kent graduate, Homewood High School graduate. I went to Birmingham Southern and graduated from there. My wife and I currently live on Salter Road with our two-month-old daughter. Tonight we're proposing a new development that we have been working on called the Woods Golf and Social at 504 Scott Street in West Homewood. So the Woods concept is an 18-hole outdoor putting course designed and built by a company called Puttec. Puttec is not your average mini golf, not like you're used to at the beach. They built and designed it to look and play like real golf, pure greens, undulation on every hole. We're really excited about the possibility of bringing them in. Our concept plan also includes a clubhouse, which will have A grand lobby, restrooms, a concession-style kitchen, as well as some office space. A recovered patio and bar that will include tables and chairs, TVs, as well as a full-service bar. An entertainment lawn that will have two party cabanas, as well as a large TV wall, perfect for game day. And then we'll have 22 parking spots on our lot as well. We're going to run a lot of birthday parties, corporate events, fundraising nights, spirit nights. We're going to be really big on tournaments and leagues for all ages. We're really excited about that, as well as other entertainment-type events like live music, trivia, game nights. One thing I know this is going to be a big conversation that we wanted to address early on was our request to stay open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. We definitely understand that there's quiet hours and noise ordinances. We understand that we have business partners, all those neighbors. We don't want to become a disturbance to them. We understand there's neighborhoods nearby as well. So we're making sure that with our design of all of our speakers and our trees and landscaping, that we're making sure that we're keeping our sound inside of our property as well as our event planning. We don't want to be having a lot of the J's or anything crazy going on at 11 o'clock at night we are always some of the people we understand where we're putting this business we want to build this development so we understand the area around us and last thing was become issued in the neighborhood so. I can lose my next point. This is not a franchise. This is something that Jack Dura, Tommy Donaldson, myself have come up with and we've really built and designed this for this West Ham community. This has been something that we talked about forever. We said West Ham would love having a putting course or something fun and interactive like that. So we've been kind of working on it last three to five years, and we drive up and down Green Springs, Oxmoor Road, just hoping that a lot that would fit our concept and development would come up for sale. And back in November, when this 504 Scott Street development or land came for sale, I was like, this is the right time. You've got all these great restaurants, great development going on, a lot of excitement over in this West Hema district. This land fits what we need. So we figured it was the right place and right time. One big thing for us is building the right team, especially for home. What I know we keep saying, but super important to us. We wanted to make sure that we had people that had experience and expertise in designing buildings and developments for the homewood area. We've got Kirk Eden with Gonzales Strength Associates and Steven Allen with William Blackstock, and they've done a tremendous job of getting us where we are today. We've been meeting with Conrad and his team since January. going through all the West Timber District requirements, and we feel very confident that we've met all those. And I've got Steven Allen here to come present some of the details about our project.

Good evening.

Good evening. I'm Steven Allen with Williams Blackstock Architects. And I write slowly, so one second. So yes, I'm used to a stencil. So conceptually, we've been working, as Owen noted, with Homewood, the city of Homewood, to make sure we meet, this development would meet the form-based code requirements of this area of West Homewood. And I think what's important here is conceptually, the development is meant to encourage and reinforce this idea of a, walkable environment, dare I say a village environment, with an appropriately scaled development. You can go to the next slide. Go back one, sorry about that. So here, just for reference, up sheet or top of the screen is is west and um to the north there is oxmoor boulevard and scott street with the 186 building and nexus fitness and you see the homewood animal hospital all in close proximity the next slide zooming in even though this is largely an outdoor venue The small building, the clubhouse, fronts the street and is really meant to meet the requirements of building frontage. That is a key part of the form-based code to really create that street frontage and active street sidewalk feel. And then because it's largely an outdoor environment, there's also a site wall that is continuous along the property. that meets the form-based code requirements. And part of that is to really define the street edge, so to speak, and to create very defined pockets of parking that are not front and center visually, but really work with the overall development and reinforce the walkable environment. So you see the clubhouse here with the covered patio and bar and the entertainment lawn and then all to the right with the practice green and then that leads to the 18-hole putting course. The parking spaces exceed the required parking spaces for this development. The site wall really constricts the open area and helps to define that street edge, and then the trash would be concealed at the back to make it as discreet as possible. Next slide. And then these are a couple of conceptual renderings to really illustrate the massing, the street frontage, and the potential materials. And you can see how the building fronts the street, has a clear sense of entry, and then the site walls help to define the street edge. and meet the height requirements but also provide some openness for visibility while also addressing security needs once you're inside the property. Next slide. And then this is just another view of the same. So we've worked closely with the city to make sure we understand height requirements, glazing requirements, the build to line, building toward the street, and just making sure that what we are doing can comply, not just comply, but contribute to the spirit of the form-based code and what it's doing in this part of West Homewood. I think that's it.

Thank you. Thank you. And so now we'll open the public portion of this case. If anyone is here to speak on this case, this will be an opportunity to come forward.

Hey, my name's Josh Alford. I'm at 120 Gillen Drive, which is, I mean, I could throw a rock pretty well and hit this place. We walk by it all the time. I think there were some historic farmhouses there, or still are. I think concern for me would also be addressed the storm, the runoff from this area. The renderings, I don't know, it seems to be sort of just conceptual. The hours set up there, say 12 a.m., so I would be concerned about that. It's one thing to say, hey, we're concerned about the neighbors, but... That's not what the 12 a.m., you know, that doesn't seem to apply to the noise ordinance there. I really don't want people, you know, watching a 22-inch screen or 22-foot screen at 12 a.m. while I'm right behind them having to listen to it. The way the TV is set up, it looks like the speakers within face the neighborhood not oxmoor if you have the tv wall there i would imagine the speakers are facing out at that entertainment lawn which is also facing the entire uh... residential area behind it uh... we've had a ton of noise from crossfit and nexus that we don't appreciate it early hours in the morning and if this is now at late hours of the night not going to be very satisfactory to the neighborhood. I do like the plans look good, but again, it just seems like sort of conceptual. The pictures they showed just seem like, you know, I mean, yeah, it'd be great if it looked like that. I just don't see that happening. Like that picture shows some dark sky lamps. That'd be awesome. Shows a whole forest behind it, which would be great too. So that would be another concern is how many trees are going to be taken down and how many will be put up and replacing them because we haven't done a good job of that with some of the businesses like Whataburger in the past enforcing that ordinance. Really the sound and the lights and the traffic are my big big concerns especially with that being on a tiny little street Scott Oxmoor right there is already really hard with traffic turning turning on to Scott Street from if you're going to turn left onto Scott Street is really difficult. So any kind of traffic situation that exacerbates that is going to cause issues as well. Fundamentally, I like the concept. It seems fun. But I just want to also make sure that neighborhood concerns are addressed and that it's done in a way that is cognizant of the residents that live in the area. Thank you.

Thank you.

Do I need to sign in again? Yes, please.

Yeah, go ahead and state your name and sign in again for the record on this case.

Kristen Trowbridge. I also live at 120 Gilland Drive. We cohabitate. That's my husband. I love the idea. I think it's really fun and exciting. I have... We've raised... four teens in Homewood. We'll have five eventually going through the high school and it's fun to see all this happening. I almost wish it happened sooner because we so much wanted things for our teenagers to do in West Homewood. We're always taking them over to Edgewood. So that part really excites me. In that vein, I'm wondering what the pricing would be because I think that is an important component of this. If this is for the neighborhood, is it something that West Homewood residents can afford and that our local teens could actually afford? I don't know, maybe there's Teen Happy Hour. You'd have to come up with another name, I guess. specials for the local kids. I just jotted down several questions I had. So I think I may have heard that the intention is to hold in sound and lighting pollution with landscaping. I am noting that any current canopy trees or native trees that are removed, new trees will take a decade or two to get to the size to where they'd actually be effective in blocking and blocking that, so that's something to consider. We are a tree-loving city, as was mentioned before, we're Tree City USA, so always interested in what percentage of trees will be removed, what's currently there and what will be removed because again even when we've replaced it takes decades to get the benefits that our current trees are providing us as far as runoff stabilizing temperatures sediment pollution and in general just making our city beautiful why we why we love living here so I'm I think you said you did address the parking spaces I I'm always interested with new developments as we move forward if we could start to consider diagonal parking more and more. It's safer. It's a little easier to get in and out. There's a new development on Oxmoor Road. I'm sorry I don't have the address, but it's just across from Seeds where they did diagonal parking. That's been really nice. the pricing, and I am concerned about live music until 12 a.m., this is my backyard, and just wondering how the city's noise ordinance will come into play there, not to throw a wet blanket on the party, but we do all live there, and we do have sometimes music early in the mornings. And then I'm also interested in how the historic buildings come into play here, if the Homewood historic preservation's at all involved with the old farmhouses that are currently there that would be removed. And I'm not saying I want them or don't want them, I'm just curious if there are ordinances that prevent the removal of any historic structures. Thank you.

My name is Mario Nieves. I live at 224 Hall Avenue in West Homewood. I moved there in 2012, and I am happy with all the development in West Homewood. Like what was previously stated, for a long time it felt like We would have to go to Edgewood or to downtown Homewood to do something. The park is amazing now. The Paramount area is amazing and it's walkable. I do echo the concerns of noise reading the packet sound like they were trying to address those with bringing down the noise at a certain hour 10 o'clock I think it said but I would support this as long as everything the city has in place was followed thank you

Okay, there's no one else in the public. When you speak on this case, we will close the public portion. The applicant, if you could come forward, Mr. Ferguson. I guess if there are any of the questions that just were raised that you want to address, this would be a good time to do it.

As far as the sound goes, I know that's going to be a big thing. Like we said, this is something that we know this area. Two of us, you know, our parents still live in that area, so we understand that we're not trying to come in there and cause a big ruckus. So As far as the speakers go, we're going to do the best we can to keep everything quiet. But at 10 o'clock, I believe, that's when quiet hours start. So there's a certain decibel that's required to be at after 10 o'clock. So we wouldn't have live music. Or like I said, DJ Sills is the exam I like to use. We love DJ Sills. But he's not going to be playing at 11 p.m. 10 o'clock is quiet hours. That'll show off at 10. There are late night games for college football. You know, you got the 11 o'clock central time game. People wanted to hang out. You know, you have the speakers at a low level. People are still hanging out. I like to use the example of Homewood Odie's, which I love that place, and it's great for that neighborhood. It's been a great development for the area, but they're essentially in a neighborhood. So, you know, there is about 200 yards away from the closest house, and again, we're We want to do everything we can to make sure we're complying to sound ordinances and not making any neighbors upset. So we've got plans to have fun and, you know, have good events come in and, you know, have a place where people can come hang out. But at the same time, we understand we're not in downtown Birmingham attracting that, you know, clientele and trying to throw those type of parties. So I think the storm, Drew, you talk about that in the landscaping?

Good evening. Kirk Eaton with Gonzales Strength and Associates. There were a couple of questions about the stormwater runoff. We are planning on having an underground water detention system with a water quality unit that will meet the Sea of Homewoods criteria as far as the water runoff standards. And then as far as the landscaping, we will also intend to meet the City of Homewoods criteria for landscaping. We're gonna be adding trees along the streets and trying to save some trees within the putting area itself. Some of those canopy trees, that is the goal right now. But once we get further into the putting course, we'll be able to finalize that. But we will be adding trees to meet the standards.

I forgot to mention about the pricing. So we want this to be something, again, like you've got date night, Stanford students, young adults, they can come, but also, you know, we understand that you've got the Western Ballparks and kids are going to have games at 10 o'clock and 6 o'clock. What's a good place for everybody to come and hang out and spend some time and not have to go outside of the city of Homewood to do that? So we've got a price right now, a day pass. which includes unlimited golf. So you can play the course as many times as you want to. For an adult, it's $25. And for 13 and under, it's $18. So again, it's about 90 minutes for a round. You can play once, go get a drink, go get a burger, play again if you want to. And we understand that, especially in the summertime, with that pool being over there in the park, I was a lifeguard for five years at both pools, so I understand kids get dropped off and kind of just run around. So we understand we're going to have some of that crowd as well. Again, want to make it affordable for this area and something that makes sense. You know, they have to swipe the credit card $10 a round. Next thing you know, they're six rounds in and parents are upset. So we're going to offer memberships as well to make it a little more cost effective. We'll have Memberships are basically the second time that you come. It'll be $35 for adults. If you come twice, you're saving money. Third time is essentially free. You get discounts on our party cabanas, birthday parties, retail and stuff like that. And we'll have annual memberships as well for families. and adults and kids and get two months free to do that. So we're trying to, you know, it's a destination place, but we also understand that we're gonna have a lot of kids and a lot of West Timwood residents as well. So I've kept that in mind. I believe that was all the questions.

Mr. Chairman, two questions. Let's call it the net tree impact. How many are you going to remove versus add? What's the difference?

For the trees?

Trees. Are we losing trees, gaining trees? What are the numbers? It's probably a question I'm going to ask if everything comes before the planning commission. We need to start really thinking about the net tree impact on all of our development. So I'm not sending you out by any means.

Right now we are proposing to adding 11 trees to the site from our current landscape plans. How many are we removing? I don't have that information readily available, but this 11 will supplement the count that we are removing.

Okay. Well, the council has an opportunity to address that as well. Second question, real quickly, and I tried to find this on the pet test website. Are these sources accessible? Let's say the Exceptional Foundation or Lynch wanted to do an outing or just an individual with a disability. Are the sources accessible? Do you know?

Yes, sir. They are. Yeah, that's the big thing we've been talking about with the grading and slope. And yeah, the way that they won't have it won't be sidewalks, but the way the turf, everything will be turf, the way that it's designed and the path of every hole, it'll be accessible.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, I have to say one thing, and it has nothing to do with this case, but I've been amused. There's somebody in the audience, and I don't want to embarrass him and point it out, but he has a T-shirt on that I find really hilarious. It says, I'm a multi-chapter. I can listen, ignore, and present all at the same time. And sometimes in a public hearing, there's a lot of that going on. So I just thought it was amusing. So that's all from me.

And if there are no further questions from the commission, I would entertain a motion.

There are 22 trees to be removed. You have it in your plans. 22. Yes. Right again.

Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. As I last with the first case, there will be a re-survey required to re-survey the two lots into one and including that dedication of public roadways. So that will be coming for the Planning Commission a little bit later as a separate case.

Okay. Thank you. And if there are no further questions, I would entertain a motion that we vote on the case.

Move approval of case FD260802. I'll second it.

I'm sorry, who seconded it? Okay. All right. Ms. Wilcox? Yes. Mr. Respinto?

Yes.

Mr. Underwood. Mr. Henninger.

Yes.

Mr. Sims.

Yes.

Mr. Stamps. Yes. And Mr. Roberts.

Yes, so your case will go forward to City Council with a seven, zero favorable recommendation. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that's all of our new business. Do we have any additional communications from staff?

Yes. Just a reminder, we have another comprehensive plan meeting coming up on August 19th. Everyone should come. Everyone in the audience should come. And if you want more information, you can email me. It should be on the website as well. But it's called Show and Tell. I think it will be a great opportunity to provide additional input.

Thank you. All right. With that, we'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you.