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Planning Commission backs rezoning of 3400 block of Birmingham Highway to C2, urges attention to buffers and stream protection
Summary
Commission recommended City Council rezone 18.34 acres along Birmingham Highway from R4 to C2 rather than C3 after neighbors requested protected buffers, creek preservation and limits on high‑intensity uses; staff explained rezoning conditions are limited but site plans and buffers will apply during development review.
The commission voted to send a positive recommendation to City Council to rezone an 18.34‑acre parcel on the 3400 block of Birmingham Highway from R4 (residential) to C2 (office/retail), after hearing extensive neighborhood concern about buffers, preservation of a creek that bisects the property, lighting and potential intrusion on an adjacent over‑55 neighborhood.
Residents urged that the narrow triangular portion of the parcel closest to the subdivision be preserved as a no‑build buffer and that any rezoning explicitly require a protected buffer along the HOA boundary, an eight‑foot fence where appropriate, and controls on lighting direction. Planning staff replied that rezonings normally cannot be conditioned with those terms, but that development standards, stream buffers and required residential buffering at site plan or subdivision stages impose protections; engineering and state (ALDOT) rules will also limit direct access on US‑280.
The applicant, Ray Cannon, told commissioners that the parcel’s R4 designation was not appropriate for frontage on US‑280 and that he supported C2 if that made residents comfortable. Commissioners voted to recommend rezoning to C2 (GC‑P) to City Council.
