Homewood City workshop lays out three growth scenarios and asks residents for written feedback

Cale Smith, Homewood City manager, opened a public growth‑choices workshop on the city’s comprehensive plan and urged residents to provide written input, saying, “Your input and feedback is extremely important and necessary.” Consultants from a project team led by Brian Wright and Matt Noonkester presented three fictional scenarios designed to illustrate trade‑offs for future growth and infrastructure planning.

Matt Noonkester told the room the team “came and created 3 fictitious stories” to elicit reactions rather than to ask the public to pick one. He described Scenario A, “maintain the high life,” as a preservationist path that keeps Homewood’s low‑ to medium‑density, single‑family character and existing parks and open space largely unchanged; the team warned that limited growth under this path could strain the tax base and increase per‑household infrastructure costs over decades.

Scenario B, labeled “incremental change,” focuses reinvestment on six target sites — Brookwood Village Mall, the old jail site, the Roadway Inn near I‑65, the Board of Education property on Valley Avenue, the Wildwood Corridor, and the Greensprings Highway Corridor — with mostly 3–4‑story mixed‑use buildings, improved sidewalks, more greenways and small‑format apartments tucked into select blocks to increase walkability.

Scenario C, the “hometown makeover,” tests a more urban future in 10 target areas (the six from Scenario B plus four additional sites such as the Metropolitan Office Complex and Oxmoor Road corridor), with more mixed‑use centers, building heights generally in the 4–6‑story range and the infrastructure upsizing that would be needed to support transit and higher densities. Noonkester said some scenarios envision transit options such as a trolley if development reaches the densities required to support it.

The consultants explained that each station board shows the condition today, projected incremental gains at full build‑out and a side‑by‑side impact summary (population and job growth, school demand, and emergency services needs). Attendees were asked to visit all station boards and leave post‑it notes in three categories — things they liked, things they disliked and questions — because the written notes will form the project record. The team directed residents who could not attend to connecthomewood.com to review materials and contribute online.

Brian Wright said the process will continue with additional ward meetings and a “big ideas and recommendations” presentation planned for July; those visuals and draft concepts will inform a conservation and development map that becomes the core of the comprehensive plan. No formal decisions or votes were taken at the workshop; the session moved into small‑group station work and public Q&A at the close.