by Dale Jones
Editor
Trussville City Council members voted unanimously on Tuesday in favor of a downtown overlay zoning ordinance that will help guide the direction of development in the downtown business district.
Visions for the direction of the downtown redevelopment effort began several years ago in a meeting at the Trussville Civic Center where hundreds of citizens met to discuss developing a master plan for downtown.
According to Councilman Buddy Choat, there were some issues with the original plan that was presented to city leaders that needed to be addressed.
“There were some issues in there that we were not comfortable with,” said Choat. “But with the help of our city attorney, City Clerk Lynn Porter, Councilman Perry Cook, Jan Bailey from planning and zoning, and others, they were able to come up with an amendment to the existing ordinance that we were all happy with.”
After a joint meeting between council members and planning and zoning board members, the ordinance was agreed upon and presented Tuesday night for adoption.
Intended to promote future commercial development, the downtown overlay district is strategically aimed at providing a comfortable, walkable, attractive environment for shopping, dining, living and civic activities in the downtown business district.
The district will promote commercial development that is consistent to the surrounding residential areas, the existing traffic corridor, the traditional commercial function of the area and the goals in the downtown master plan.
Standards set forth in the overlay district ordinance will apply to all properties within the downtown business district in addition to the underlying classification standards for each property.
“I think this document provides a good overview of what we want downtown to eventually look like,” Choat said.
After a public hearing, where no comments were offered, the ordinance passed unanimously.