Zoning, outdoor dining focus of joint workshop

By Grace Lovins

Updating Birmingham’s zoning ordinances and possible additional rules around outdoor dining platforms were the focuses of the Monday, June 16, joint city planning board and commission meeting.

City commissioners offered input on the planning board’s next steps to begin updating the zoning ordinance based on the 2040 master plan as well as considerations for further outdoor dining platform regulations.

The city’s planning board has been gearing up for an update of the zoning ordinance for roughly two years following the adoption of the 2040 master plan in 2023. In July 2024, city commissioners formalized the priorities that each city board and commission was assigned by the planning board to help kickstart the implementation of the master plan.

According to city planning director Nick Dupuis, the commission recently granted $200,000 in the 2025-2026 budget cycle to be used for hiring a firm to help with updating the zoning ordinances. Dupuis explained that the city can anticipate having a request for proposals (RFP) ready to issue in July, responses to the request in early August and, depending on the RFP, starting work on the project early next year.

Dupuis said the hope for the joint meeting was for the planning board to know if the commission had any major considerations they want the board to keep in mind while the updating process takes off. Commissioners consistently suggested that public engagement, communication and the reader-friendliness of the ordinance itself were three major items the board should be reflecting on throughout the process.

The commission stressed that the public should be informed of both what the update is and is not going to do. Planning board chair Scott Clein reiterated multiple times during the meeting that the master plan did not call for substantial changes to zoning and that, while there are parts of the master plan the city must follow, there isn’t something the city must do on every page.

Transitioning over to discuss outdoor dining platforms, Dupuis posed the question to the commission if they would want to ask the planning board in the future to study the number, density or locations of the platforms and, if so, what considerations they should take into account.

Mayor Theres Longe added that adjacency would be an important factor to add to the list, using restaurants Teuta and Marrow that recently applied for outdoor dining platforms as examples. Both platforms proposed by the different businesses had issues with surrounding parking and traffic concerns.

Commissioners went back and forth on a few considerations, but all came to a consensus that outdoor dining platforms should not cause the loss of an ADA accessible parking space as was the situation with Teuta.

By the end of the workshop, city commissioners offered several pieces of feedback and considerations for the planning board to keep in mind while they approach updating the zoning ordinance and considering updated outdoor dining platform rules. As the meeting was a workshop, no formal action was taken by either the board or the commission.