City Towers plan sent back to planning board

By Grace Lovins

In a unanimous vote during the Monday, August 11, Birmingham City Commission meeting, commissioners voted to return the Birmingham Towers project, currently under construction at 479 .S Old Woodward, back to the city’s planning board for further review after the developer sought to modify the building's approved floor plan, altering parking requirements.

The five-story mixed-use development was originally approved in 2023 and is permitted in the city’s D4 zoning district. Originally, the plans called for one floor of retail, two floors of office and two floors of residential units. The proposed revision would change the floor plan to include two floors of retail, two floors of office and one floor of residential units.

According to planning director Nick Dupuis, the change also triggered a request for a waiver of 49 parking spaces, a point that the planning board addressed during their review of the proposal during the July 23 meeting.

Residents of the neighboring Birmingham Place development, in attendance at the commission meeting, have been raising objections to the new building.

At the planning board meeting, board chair Scott Celin stated, “There is no way that I can conclude that this proposed change would be anything other than detrimental to the surrounding community, the surrounding business owners and put an unneeded strain on the city’s infrastructure at a time when we’ve got other development coming online.”

Several members of the public, most residents of Birmingham Place, criticized what they described as a pattern of changes, variance requests and postponements.

Birmingham Tower Partners LLC, prior to Monday’s meeting, sent a request to the city to have their item postponed from Monday’s meeting until September. Counsel for the developers, Ethan Holtz, explained that this time would allow them to “sharpen their pencils” and alleviate some of the concerns raised by both the planning board and residents who spoke during the public hearing.

Ultimately, the commission unanimously decided to adjourn the public hearing for the developers’ request to postpone their proposal and instead asked Birmingham Towers to return to the planning board for another public hearing and present any new information they have that would address the concerns previously brought up by the board.