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Irondale council adopts zoning changes on steep driveways and unit-size averaging
Summary
The Irondale City Council approved Ordinance 2025-14 to allow the fire marshal to sign off on internal roads steeper than 10% and to change the minimum dwelling-unit-size rule to an average measure, giving developers more flexibility on constrained sites.
The Irondale City Council on Oct. 21, 2025, approved Ordinance 2025-14 amending Appendix A of the municipal zoning code to change how steep internal roads are handled and how minimum dwelling-unit floor area is measured.
The ordinance removes a flat 10% maximum-gradient limit for internal drives and instead requires that any internal road or drive exceeding 10% be approved by the fire marshal; it also changes the existing minimum-unit-size requirement to an average-floor-area standard (discussed in the meeting as targeting a 900-square-foot average). Council members said the changes are intended to give engineering and fire-safety officials flexibility to respond to Irondale’s hilly sites while preserving public-safety review.
Jim Mees, the city’s engineering consultant with Seine Associates, told the council the proposed language aligns with the International Fire Code and with the city’s practice of coordinating design review with the fire marshal. “The International Fire Code does allow an exemption for the fire marshal to approve that,” Mees said, adding that engineering review and the fire marshal’s judgment are used together on slope and circulation matters.
Councilwoman McQuayre cautioned that some municipalities keep a strict grade cap. “They prefer to on the side of caution, and these don’t happen all the time,” she said, noting that stricter limits are sometimes meant to reduce liability in the event of a problem.
Councilman Aaron Sims and other members said professional staff and the fire marshal are better suited than a citizen board to judge exceptions for site-specific grades. “The engineers, the fire marshal … they should be the ones making that decision,” Sims said.
On the housing-size change, city staff told the council the amendment adds the word “average” to the minimum floor-area calculation to allow variations across units while maintaining an overall size target. Council members said the intent is to provide flexibility for multifamily projects without eliminating a baseline standard.
After a public hearing that produced no speakers, the council moved to approve Ordinance 2025-14 by voice vote. The ordinance will be incorporated into the city code and applied to future development reviews; council members said related subdivision-code provisions will also be reviewed to ensure consistency.
The ordinance was presented and debated during the council’s Oct. 21 meeting and adopted the same night.
