Decatur council approves resolution to back Cook Museum expansion, including city-built parking deck

The Decatur City Council voted 4–1 on Resolution 25-191 to approve city participation in a land swap and parking-deck plan intended to enable expansion of the Cook Museum of Natural Science, now designated by the state as the North Alabama STEM Center. The museum has secured a $9.5 million appropriations designation from the state to support a near-doubling of its footprint, and city officials said municipal investment in parking infrastructure is necessary to accept and leverage that state funding. Brian Hook, a Cook Museum representative, told the council the museum has welcomed more than 512,000 guests and nearly 80,000 students since opening in June 2019 and that the planned expansion would grow the museum from about 62,000 square feet to nearly 120,000 square feet. Hook said the expansion would add new STEM labs, programming and exhibition galleries and that the city’s ownership and operation of a parking deck—achieved by a land swap—would provide the adjacent land the museum needs for construction. “The…