2026-09-08 - Community Development Committee Special Meeting

00:00Uh,

00:00next item on the agenda is the approval

00:03of agenda minutes.

00:05Have we had an opportunity to review

00:09uh, committee minutes from August the

00:113rd?

00:12>> Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'll move for

00:14approval.

00:15>> All right.

00:15>> Second.

00:16>> All those in favor say I.

00:18>> I.

00:18>> All right, the minutes have been

00:20approved. Uh, so the next item on the

00:22agenda is old and new business.

00:25Uh, first item on the agenda is item

00:28one.

00:29And that is going to be presented to us

00:31by Corey Stallworth.

00:54>> Okay. Corey Stallworth, I serve as

00:56senior deputy director of community

00:58development. And the item before you

01:00today is for an amendment of our

01:04agreement with HRCA, which is also Grove

01:07Homes NCRC. And so this is related to

01:11our project with them in the Whitland

01:14neighborhood, um, where they are

01:16building homes around at the Real

01:18Academy. So this project has been

01:20underway for probably the last uh, two

01:23years.

01:25And so in this request is to

01:29uh, NCRC is looking to uh, give back

01:32home funds in the agreement. Uh, and

01:35that is due to that these funds are not

01:38in alignment, um, with their development

01:40plan. And so they just really doesn't

01:42work uh, the federal regulations for

01:44them. And so uh, they will give those

01:47funds back to community development. And

01:50also this uh, agreement will reduce the

01:53units from 16 units to 11

01:58due to them repaying that funding back

02:02to the city.

02:05>> Any questions from my colleagues?

02:09>> Yes, so

02:12with us getting the money back, what are

02:14the plans for the return funds?

02:17>> Yep, so the good thing is they only were

02:21only draw draw down 182,000

02:24of those funding for acquisition and so

02:27they will reimburse that to the city and

02:30we will capture the entire amount of

02:33400,000. That will go back into our

02:35housing fund to be able to support more

02:37projects. So in the end that increases

02:40us to be able to do more.

02:42>> Awesome. Okay, thank you.

02:45>> Any additional questions?

02:47If not, I'll call for a motion.

02:50>> I move to approve this item.

02:51>> Second.

02:52>> All those in favor?

02:53>> I.

02:53>> All right, all right. The eyes have it.

02:55This item has been approved. Uh the next

02:57item on the agenda is item two, CBD CDBG

03:01facade improvement program presented by

03:03Courtney Stallworth or

03:25>> Good afternoon. My name is Courtney

03:27Newton and I serve as a senior project

03:29manager in community development. I

03:31bring to you today another applicant for

03:33our facade improvement program. Today we

03:36have Ashworth Enterprises and it is a um

03:40seamstress tailor shop in the Great Mont

03:43neighborhood. They are seeking $50,000

03:46and that'll be for replacement of the

03:47ease, soffit, fascia,

03:50uh repainting, installation of a new

03:52door, new entryway, storefront glass,

03:55as well as the exterior columns. Um

03:59And it is properly zoned for

04:01neighborhood commercial. Uh this is

04:03actually a family business. Um Ms.

04:05Ashford is the daughter of the original

04:07um her father and mother owned it and

04:10passed it down to her. Uh they've been

04:11in this neighborhood for over 50 years.

04:14Um

04:15pretty well known. Uh so

04:17uh we are excited to be working with her

04:19and I can answer any questions that you

04:20may have.

04:22>> All right, thank you, Courtney. Any

04:24questions from my colleagues?

04:27>> No, I mean this Yeah, it looks like it's

04:29really a great um

04:31renovation for the Bush Hills

04:32neighborhood. So

04:34um this is it looks like it's going to

04:36be a really really nice what we have

04:38happening here. Thank you.

04:39>> Thank you.

04:41Any additional questions?

04:42If not, I'll call for a motion.

04:45>> I move that we approve this item.

04:46>> Second.

04:47>> All those in favor say aye.

04:48>> Aye.

04:49>> Aye.

04:50>> All right, this item has been approved.

04:51Thank you, Courtney.

04:52>> Thank you.

04:53>> All right, the next item on the agenda

04:56is the adoption of the Birmingham

04:57Sustainability Plan uh by Thomas Yeager.

05:13>> Hi, good afternoon.

05:15Okay.

05:16My name is Thomas Yeager. I serve as the

05:18director of the mayor's office of

05:19resilience and sustainability.

05:22I'm passing uh Hunter uh my colleague is

05:24passing out um some information that I

05:27believe you have all already seen

05:29regarding this plan.

05:31Um just want to give just a brief uh

05:35a reminder summary of why we're here.

05:38Um we're here to uh requesting the

05:39adoption of the sustainability plan as

05:42an official plan of the city of

05:44Birmingham.

05:45This has been a collaborative effort

05:47between the

05:49uh Department of Planning, Engineering,

05:50and Permits and the Mayor's Office of

05:52Resilience and Sustainability.

05:55After thorough public and stakeholder

05:58and subject matter expert engagement, we

06:00developed close to 100 um

06:03goals and action items

06:05um for Birmingham related to

06:08sustainability and livability.

06:10Um we think we did a really good job of

06:12capturing public sentiment, collecting

06:15engagement, and synthesizing that into

06:17this plan. We think this plan really

06:20does a great job of representing what

06:22residents want from the city in terms of

06:24sustainability and livability.

06:27Um we also developed a greenhouse gas

06:29inventory, which we believe is the

06:31city's is the state of Alabama's first

06:34municipal greenhouse gas inventory.

06:36Really proud of that.

06:37Um we have a lot of work to do as

06:40evidenced by the number of action items

06:42and the

06:44loftiness of some of the goals in this

06:45plan, but we have really great internal

06:48buy-in. Um we talked to pretty much

06:50every department in the city and made

06:53sure that these goals are aligned with

06:55their priorities and their ability to

06:58implement.

07:00Um

07:01we plan to hold ourselves accountable by

07:03doing a number of things, including

07:05publicly publishing metrics that we will

07:08hold ourselves accountable by.

07:10Um many of the things in this plan are

07:13already being worked on as we speak.

07:16Um

07:17and many of them um

07:20um are, you know, lofty and visionary

07:23and will come in the future.

07:26Um

07:27it is kind of the guiding vision for the

07:30Office of Resilience and Sustainability,

07:33but it's also a guiding vision for the

07:35city itself

07:36um as a more sustainable, green, livable

07:39city.

07:40Um look forward to working with your

07:43offices, with uh uh every department in

07:46the city to implement these action

07:48items.

07:49Um,

07:50yeah, I'm just excited to be here to

07:52present this. I know it's a lot. Um,

07:54happy to to answer any questions you

07:56have.

07:57>> All right, thank you, Thomas. Uh, any

07:59questions from my colleagues?

08:00>> I have a question real

08:01>> Yes, ma'am.

08:02>> So, with the greenhouse gas reduction

08:04goal, um, I think you wanted to reduce

08:06it by 66%

08:09by 2030, is that correct?

08:11>> So,

08:12that is that would be nice. We are very

08:15close to 2030.

08:17>> Uh-huh.

08:17>> Our greenhouse We would like for our the

08:20city's official greenhouse gas reduction

08:22goal to be net zero by 2050.

08:25>> Right.

08:26>> Many cities that have set 2030 goals

08:28were setting those 5, 10, 15 years ago.

08:32Um, that's

08:34essentially 3 years away, and we're not

08:37going to be reducing our emissions by

08:4060% in 3 years.

08:42>> So, that's not actually

08:44>> So, it That is a trend line. That is a,

08:47um,

08:48a trend line that we would love to be

08:50on. However, our goal

08:53is net zero by 2050.

08:55>> Okay. So, it's not necessarily that we

08:57expect to be at

09:00We just We're just going to make it down

09:02there

09:02>> Correct.

09:03>> by 2050.

09:03>> Yes, ma'am.

09:04>> Okay. And, um,

09:06do you I mean, I know you said you've

09:08gotten a lot of

09:09feedback or positive feedback from

09:10within the city. Can you or is there any

09:13external pushback that you might um

09:16>> Uh,

09:16I'm not a very aware of any external

09:18pushback. Um,

09:21I, yeah, um,

09:23again, we had really great internal

09:25buy-in. We also we did 30-plus, um,

09:29subject matter expert or stakeholder,

09:32uh, interviews to make sure that these

09:34plans aligned with

09:36both, you know, scientific, um,

09:39expertise as well as, you know, um,

09:42local

09:43knowledge, local conditions. So, I think

09:46we did a fairly good job of of both

09:48internal and external engagement to make

09:50sure,

09:51um, this fit Birmingham.

09:53>> Yeah, I mean, I know that this is going

09:54to definitely, especially with

09:56generating clean, affordable power,

09:58we're going to need to have, um, some

10:01external stake- stakeholders that are on

10:03board and supportive and

10:05>> That's right.

10:06>> with this.

10:06>> Absolutely.

10:08>> Okay.

10:10So, our power source is like, yes, we're

10:12here, we're with you.

10:13>> Right, yes. So, that that is something

10:15that to be aware of that in this plan,

10:17there are action items that recommend,

10:20you know, that we that

10:23different external partners either

10:26regulate or or generate power

10:29differently. If you look at the

10:30greenhouse gas goals,

10:33that's just

10:34we have to make the energy that we're

10:36consuming cleaner. There's no other way

10:39to get to net zero.

10:40>> I guess then, I guess and not to like

10:45belabor, I guess then my concern in

10:47terms of the realis- being realistic

10:49with our goals is making sure that we do

10:51have those external partners on board on

10:55the front end so that we can actually

10:57say like, this is what our goal is and

10:59we've got people on board and

11:00realistically, we feel that this is

11:02actually going to happen.

11:03>> Yes, ma'am. That's our intention.

11:05>> Okay.

11:05>> Thank you.

11:08>> Any question from you, Counselor Smith?

11:10All right.

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