City Council approves professional district ordinance

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The Mountain Brook City Council voted 3-1 on Tuesday night to approve an ordinance that amends Article X of the City Code. The ordinance defines a professional zoning district and the permitted uses within it.

“This will now be the guideline for anybody requesting a rezoning to professional,” Council President Virginia Smith said.

Smith, Alice Womack and Billy Pritchard voted in favor of the ordinance, while Lloyd Shelton voted against it.

The ordinance outlines the intent and purpose of a professional zoning district, which is to provide appropriate-scaled buildings for professional offices. The district may be applied to sites that can establish an effective transition to adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The ordinance specifies that all professional district uses will be conditional and require city council approval. It also provides criteria that rezoning applicants must meet if they want their request approved.

“The old [ordinance] does not have as many parameters of protection,” Smith said.

Tuesday’s vote followed a 35-40 minute public hearing that saw opponents and proponents of the ordinance make their case before the council.

Sylvion Moss, a lawyer with Red Mountain Law Group, voiced her opposition on behalf of residents who live near the Knesseth Israel synagogue at the intersection of Overton Road and Cosby Drive.

According to documentation provided at the Feb. 25 city council meeting, revisions to Chapter X of the city code were prompted by a request to rezone the synagogue’s property from residential to professional. The proposal to rezone entails converting the synagogue into a professional office for physicians specializing in plastic surgery.

Moss said residents don’t want that change to happen and feel the ordinance could allow it. She asked the council to consider tweaking the ordinance so it would require a professional zoning district to be contiguous with another business district and mandate public notice if a business in the district changes.

Neither modification was made.

“We wanted it to include more specifics and due process requirements but appreciate the work of the city council and staff in crafting a new ordinance,” Moss said.

Steven Brickman, a lawyer representing the potential buyer of the synagogue property, spoke in favor of the ordinance.

“I think you found the right balance in the words that you put together in that ordinance,” he told the council. “I really believe that the ordinance is fair.”

Tuesday marked the third public hearing about the professional zoning ordinance. The council delayed a vote at its March 25 meeting because many concerned residents were out of town for spring break.

In other business, the council:

  • Appointed Paige B. Daniel and W. Craig Fravert to the city’s Finance Committee to serve without compensation through May 11, 2023.
  • Approved the purchase of new batteries, AC/DC caps and fans for the uninterrupted power supply serving the city’s backup emergency communications (E911) system. Total project cost is a little less than $7,500 and will be paid for the city’s 911 funds. The uninterrupted power supply sustains the E911 system between the time of a power outage and when the generator kicks on.
  • Approved a resolution expressing support for the city’s participation in the no-poaching agreement that was signed by 22 Jefferson County mayors, including Mountain Brook’s Stewart Welch, in early April. Participating cities agree not to incentivize businesses to relocate from one city to another within the county.
  • Approved a resolution authorizing the city to draft a letter expressing its opposition to Senate Bill 264, which would diminish the city's ability to regulate small cell technology.  
  • Proclaimed Thursday, April 25, as “National Get On-Board Day” to encourage the use of public transportation. The Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority will offer free rides that day.
  • Proclaimed May 2019 as Building Safety Month.

The next city council meeting is May 13.