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Walker Springs Public Hearing Recap

  Walker Springs Public Hearing Recap Once again, our community is simply the best! The residents and students from the University of Montevallo really advocated and challenged city leadership to address our concerns and to focus on responsible growth. Here’s a recap for those unable to attend the City Council’s public hearing on November 14th. It was a longer than normal city council meeting due to the number of agenda items and the mayor taking the time to address the council and those in attendance before diving into the agenda. The mayor acknowledged the various concerns communicated over the past few months and praised the community engagement that has been displayed at recent meetings. He stated again that the city has not done a good job at educating the public about these developments and promised himself, the city manager and public relations manager would improve the information disseminated in the future. The only person who spoke in favor of the amended plan was Newcastle’s
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Bruno Public Hearing Recap

First, I'd like to say  Thank you to everyone who came out to the city council meeting last night and vocalized their concerns during the public hearing for the Bruno Trust commercial development. We had a very good turnout and at least two news outlets in attendance! ABC 33/40 and Fox 6 were there and ABC 33/40 aired our story in the 10:00 p.m. news last night.  The city council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance and rezone the Bruno Trust land from commercial along 119, planned residential (200 houses), and agriculture to business commercial use throughout the approximately 45.5 acre plot. We have obtained the drafts of three citizens' comments from last night, and have included them below.  First comment:  Demand As I was reading the proposal for this development, I kept asking myself what demand is being addressed by this project? Why create unnecessary burdens with traffic or downstream flooding for residents? Why do commercial businesses need to expand into a pred
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Public Comments about Walker Springs

We are posting the some of the drafts of the comments that were shared with us about the Walker Springs hearing last night, Sept. 27. From an advocate for Ebenezer Swamp: Ebenezer Swamp Ecological Preserve is a 68-acre nature preserve dedicated to research and education and is maintained by the University of Montevallo. It features sculptures created by UM students, an outdoor classroom, and an ADA-accessible boardwalk and trail. It is open to the public seven days a week during daylight hours. There are plans to remodel the building onsite to create a nature interpretive center that would allow us to expand our educational programming. Currently, the Environmental Education Program hosts K-12 field trips, university labs, day camps, guided tours, teacher workshops, and public programming. All of these services which are available and utilized by residents of Alabaster. Much of our programming and curriculum is inspired by the beauty and complex ecosystem of our beloved Ebenezer Swamp.
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Sept. 27 Recap Post

  Thank you to everyone who came out last night! The planning and zoning hearing to accept the amended plan from developers was a packed house last night! Thank you to everyone who showed support for the swamp, and thank you to the committee for hearing our comments.  While the frustration was palpable, the committee did hear many comments from different stakeholders regarding this project. Overall, the planning and zoning committee voted to accept the amended plan, with one member- Councilwoman Kerri Pate, abstaining from the vote. This means that the amended plan will replace the current master plan going forward.  The developers still have yet to receive feedback from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and could have to amend their plan again, and then the committee will have to vote to accept another amended plan yet again.  Overall, the developers claimed to have reduced impervious surfaces on the amended plan. The committee heard comments that: -This does not necessarily also imply
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Upcoming Public Hearing- Sept. 27

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What has changed on Walker Springs amended plan? We hope that you can join us on Tuesday, September 27 for the public hearing held by the Planning and Zoning Committee of the City of Alabaster.  Date: September 27, 2022 Time: 6:30 p.m. cst Location: 1953 Municipal Way                    Alabaster, AL 35007 As an Alabaster resident, this notice was given about a week ago via certified mail: *apologies for the poor image quality! First time blogger here! When we contacted the person listed for more information, this is what we were given: This is the amended plan that the City of Alabaster Planning and Zoning committee will be voting to accept on Tuesday, September 27 and where you as a member of the affected community, get to voice your concerns about the site plan. When we looked at this, we decided it was pretty difficult to discern what was amended from just this page. So upon a request for more context, the current master plan was also shared.  Current Master Plan for Walker Springs
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