Council delays vote on amended Lane Parke plan

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The Mountain Brook City Council on Monday granted a request from real estate developer Evson, Inc. to delay a vote regarding the future of its Lane Parke project. 

The request came on the heels of a contentious Aug. 12 council meeting at which many residents voiced their concerns about proposed changes to Lane Parke’s planned unit development (PUD) master plan.

Evson is asking the city to approve an ordinance that would let it amend the original traffic and access plan — allowing alternate drive-thru locations —  and change the base zoning standards to permit four drive-thrus instead of three. 

The City Council postponed a vote on the ordinance Aug. 12 and circled back to it on Monday. But Mel McElroy, an attorney with Maynard Cooper & Gale who represents Evson, stepped to the podium before discussions began and asked for a continuation at the Sept. 23 council meeting. 

“We’re going to be proposing language to you guys amending the PUD language from what we talked about,” McElroy said. “The change there will be to clarify that in the Treadwell’s block that we talked about, that neither the food or coffee uses will be permitted there. So that drive-thru opportunity would be limited to a bank, dry cleaner or pharmacy.”

The original Lane Parke PUD specifies five types of businesses that can have drive-thrus. They include banks and financial institutions, pharmacies, dry cleaners, coffee shops and specialty food concepts such as bakeries, delis or ice cream shops. 

When McElroy addressed the council Aug. 12, he displayed a rendering of the amended Lane Parke PUD plan. It included three drive-thrus in Lane Parke’s second phase, which hasn’t been built. Two of the drive-thrus would be in the Regions Bank block depicted in the rendering’s bottom, right corner. The other would be in the Treadwell’s block depicted in the rendering’s bottom, left corner. 

McElroy said that a coffee shop has expressed interest in occupying a drive-thru location in the Regions Bank block, and a request to allow that was included in Evson’s Aug. 12 proposal. 

The plan drew ire from residents, who decried the addition of drive-thrus and criticized an accompanying traffic study that they said lacked thoroughness. Richard Caudle with Skipper Consulting presented the study at the meeting. His research discovered that a drive-thru lane at a coffee shop wouldn’t be able to accommodate all vehicles during peak business periods, resulting in traffic jams on Jemison Lane. 

The traffic study also examined the impact of a drive-thru fast-casual restaurant in the Treadwell’s block. But McElroy said his client wasn’t seeking council approval for that at the time.

According to McElroy’s comments on Monday, the possibility of a fast-casual restaurant in the Treadwell's block will be off the table moving forward. McElroy also said that Skipper Consulting will conduct additional traffic studies ahead of the Sept. 23 council meeting. 

Many Mountain Brook residents attended Monday’s council meeting, but none of them spoke publicly after hearing McElroy’s update. 

Feral cats in Crestline

While the Lane Parke proposal highlighted Monday’s official meeting, discussion of feral cats dominated the pre-meeting. Crestline resident John Allen Roberts said he and other residents who live off of Euclid Avenue between Fairmont Drive and Lorena Lane have dealt with feral cats for about a decade. But in recent years, Roberts said, the issue has worsened. 

He said he has been woken up by the sound of screeching cats and has to clean up their fecal matter from his yard consistently. Instead of cats living among humans, Roberts said that it feels as if humans are living among cats in his neighborhood. 

He also said that a neighbor has been feeding the cats and called on city leaders to help him find a solution to the issue. 

Police Chief Ted Cook said it has been the pattern and practice of the city’s animal control department to capture feral cats, spay or neuter them and then return them to where they were found. 

Councilor Phil Black said the city needs to do more to combat the issue because it is out of hand. Labeling the abundance of feral cats a "health problem," he suggested impounding them rather than releasing them.

Fellow Councilor Lloyd Shelton shared Black’s views, and the two agreed to collaborate with Cook in devising a plan of action.  

2020 street resurfacing

During Monday’s official meeting, the City Council approved the tentative fiscal year 2020 street resurfacing list. 

The list includes Glencoe Circle, Glenview Circle, Crestview Drive, Crestwood Drive, Sheridan Place, Delmar Terrace, Sheridan Drive, Crestview Circle, Oak Canyon Drive and Oak Canyon Circle. 

The city performs annual street resurfacing in the late spring and summer. It chooses the streets for resurfacing based on need. 

Other notable items

In addition to the preceding items, the council on Monday:

  • Recommended the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board issue a restaurant retail liquor license to Bobby Carl’s Table at 2031 Cahaba Road. Co-owner Christy Lowe said she is targeting a mid-September opening. 
  • Authorized the establishment of a checking account for the 10-cent state gasoline tax increase. Steve Boone, the city clerk and finance director, said Mountain Brook will begin to see revenue from the increase in September.
  • Authorized an agreement between the city and Kadco, LLC for $20,000 with respect to public improvements being made along Poe Drive, near the border with Vestavia Hills. Kadco is installing a new sidewalk and light poles.