Homewood adds parking, crosswalk and stop-sign items to council agenda

Homewood City Council members at a Dec. 8 pre-council meeting agreed to add several traffic and pedestrian items to the Dec. 20 agenda, including a request to restrict on-street parking along the eastern side of Linden Avenue, a marked crosswalk at the Shades Road–Westover Drive intersection, and two stop signs.

The parking request stems from a complaint raised to the city manager's office by nearby businesses about a short cluster of on-street spaces near the Rees Street stop sign that, staff said, makes it difficult for vehicles to turn into Linden Avenue. An unidentified staff presenter described the area as "about 3 cars that can fit in there," and said the restriction would cover the eastern side of Linden between Rees Street and Oxmoor Road. The presenter told councilors the item will be added to the Dec. 20 council agenda for formal consideration.

On the pedestrian item, staff asked the council to authorize a marked crosswalk at Shades Road and Westover Drive to align with new curb ramps installed by Publix. Speaker 2 said the council would seek unanimous consent during the formal meeting to approve the crosswalk and "go ahead and do unanimous consent tonight," indicating the council would vote on the item without an additional reading.

The pre-meeting also listed two stop-sign requests (Waverly and Avalon) to be added to the formal agenda. Staff characterized the crosswalk request as straightforward and recommended bringing it forward for a single-night unanimous-consent vote. No formal council votes were recorded in the pre-meeting; all items were scheduled for formal action at the Dec. 20 meeting.

Council members said they would review site details with staff at the chamber meeting and confirmed the crosswalk and parking restriction would be placed on the upcoming agenda.