Gardendale officials see their new comprehensive plan
It’s been months in the making, but is intended to serve Gardendale for two decades.
City officials and interested residents got their first look at the new comprehensive plan, which seeks to set a framework for growth and lifestyle improvement for Gardendale well into the 2030s.
The plan was unveiled Monday night during a presentation at the Gardendale Civic Center by Mikhail Alert, a planner for the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, whose staff prepared the plan with help from the KPS Group of Birmingham.
The plan is still considered a draft, and at this point merely serves as a road map — nothing in the plan will come to fruition until city officials act on it.
“This report will be evaluated by the planning and zoning commission, the city council and myself,” Mayor Othell Phillips said. “We’re hoping by the end of July that we’ll have any teaks or corrections, and then adopt the plan.”
Among the proposals are three areas marked for different kinds of development:
• A retail and professional-office development on Main Street, across from the soon-to-be-built City Hall and on the site currently occupied by the Gardendale First Baptist Church south campus;
• A mixed-use development on U.S. 31 north of Mt. Olive Blvd. and Moncrief Rd, which would include a new road that would go from U.S. 31 eastward to New Castle Road and potentially to Carson Road;
• Areas of light-industrial businesses on either side of Interstate 65 south of Fieldstown Road — one area west of I-65 and another east, with the latter accessed by a new road off of Odum Road south of Walmart.
The plan also details development of areas around the proposed Northern Beltline, which is shown on maps as crossing over U.S. 31 and I-65 at a location north of Mt. Olive Road and south of Barber Blvd. That’s closer to Gardendale than some previous maps from the Alabama Department of Transportation have shown.
The RPCGB staff also produced a video to promote both the comprehensive plan, and the city itself to prospective businesses. Watch it here:
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