Workshop, joint meeting on long-term issues

By Kevin Elliott

The Birmingham City Commission will be holding two special meetings this month to discuss long-range plans for the city, including unimproved streets and the first draft of the 2040 Master Plan.

Commissioners will hold a special workshop on Monday, April 12 ,at 6 p.m., prior to the commission’s regularly scheduled meeting at 7:30 p.m.. The workshop will allow commissioners to discuss unimproved streets in the city's neighborhoods.

Last year, the ad hoc unimproved streets study committee formulated a recommendation regarding the future of the city’s unimproved streets. The commission will review the implementation of the plan during the workshop. The next steps include city staff rating pavement conditions, in conjunction with water and sewer infrastructure on those streets, to establish an annual priority schedule for consideration and for those to be reconstructed and improved in the city’s capital improvement program.

A full version of the ad hoc unimproved streets study committee’s report may be found online at bhamgov.org/unimprovedstreets.

City commissioners on Monday, April 19, will join the city’s planning board members at 7 p.m. for a joint planning/city commission meeting to discuss public input in the city’s 2040 Master Plan, as they discuss the first draft of the plan.

City commissioners and planning board members will be joined by members of the DPZ planning consultant team that has been working on the plan with staff for the past two years. Members of the meeting will discuss the vast amount of public input contributed to the first draft of the master plan, with commissioners to give final direction on a second draft.