VestaviaVoice.com
May 2013
Volume 1 | Issue 1 | May 2013
Smooth transition
Piece by piece U.S. 31 in 2028
Georgie Salem rolled his success with Vestavia Hills varsity baseball straight onto the field with the Crimson Tide. Find out more about this hometown hit machine inside.
Sports page 16
Aqua quandary
As summer creeps closer, Vestavia Hills residents are deciding what local pool their families will be visiting this year - Wald Park, the Vestavia Hills YMCA or Life Time Fitness.
Community page 12
INSIDE City ..................... 4 Business ............ 6 Food ................... 8 Community ....... 9
School House .. 14 Sports ............... 16 Faith .................. 18 Calendar ........... 19
Pre-Sort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Birmingham, AL Permit #656
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The first step to reshaping U.S. 31 is replacing the regulations that initially shaped it
The US-31 Corridor Redevelopment Plan drafted by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham presents options for the future of the corridor, including:
Boulevard: By adding one lane on each side of U.S. 31 outside the rightof-way, fast-moving traffic is allowed to continue along the original lanes while slower moving traffic accesses adjacent developments through a continuous link without interruptions of curb-cuts and driveways. The side lanes and medians act as a buffer from faster lanes, providing a safe walking haven for pedestrians.
Greenway: The banks of Patton Creek could be transformed into a recreational, educational, and civic amenity for the city and its residents and re-establish the natural flood plain and ecosystem.
Mixed-use developments: Current suburban strip centers and outparcels surrounded by expansive, under-utilized parking lots and single-use, single-story structures with no relationship to surrounding neighborhoods could be replaced by: a variety of housing options that appeal to empty-nesters and young professionals within a diverse urban form; side streets with parking; sidewalks; trees; and office space above retail at ground level.
This aerial view of Vestavia Hills shows the locations identified in the diagram to the left. The US-31 Corridor Redevelopment Plan composed by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham proposes that much of the pictured development be reformed into mixed-use structures under a detailed form-based code, which the City of Vestavia Hills could begin working on as early as this month. Images provided by RPCGB.
By JEFF THOMPSON Executive Editor Vestavia Hills was built on what lies between its two temples on U.S. 31. After 60 years of growth on the corridor, the sloped stretch of signal-heavy highway has become a sizable chunk of the City’s identity. And for many, that’s a problem. “Basically, if you drive down U.S. 31 right now, the development that you see – and I’m not going to call it bad development – is the development everybody was doing 30 years ago,” Vestavia Hills Economic Developer Fred Baughman said. “You put a store at the back of the property, asphalted everything in front of it and away you go.” The development pattern created a retail sector that survives but doesn’t thrive. Because sales tax is monumentally important to a city’s growth and development, the US-31 Corridor Redevelopment Plan was created to reinvent this seemingly listless piece of the area’s livelihood.
But it won’t be quick, and it won’t be easy. The Plan, approved by the City of Vestavia Hills last year, began in 2011 as a study by Market Street, a firm from Atlanta. The company launched a survey of Vestavia Hills residents and businesses about their city in order to create an economic development plan, said Phillip Amthor, a planner with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB). What Market Street found wasn’t surprising. “Everyone knew part of what was going to be said was that Highway 31 needed to be redeveloped,” he said. “So, (the City) went ahead and hired us to come up with a plan.” The City secured a $100,000 grant to fund the RPCGB project, and by October 2011, the team was taking data collected by Market Street and designing a long-term proposal for the corridor that incorporated what
See U.S. 31 | page 17