By Terry Schrimscher, For the Tribune
ARGO – More than 300 people filled Argo City Hall Tuesday night to learn more about the city’s proposed zoning plans and speak out on rumors circulating on social media. Representatives from the consulting firm of Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC) were present to discuss proposals for future growth.
“This is only the first meeting. There’s going to be one more meeting and then we turn it over to the planning commission and city council,” said Corey Sosebee, urban designer for GMC. Sosebee started the meeting with a presentation he said he hoped will dispel some of the misinformation that has been circulating.
The city worked with GMC to create a comprehensive plan in 2022, which can be viewed online at www.argoalive.com. According to the data in the plan, Argo grew 145% during the 20-year span between 2000 and 2020 making it one of the fastest growing towns in the Birmingham metro area.
GMC surveyed more than 500 Argo residents to get ideas for the needs of the city and held five planning sessions detailed in the plan. Sosebee said one of the proposed changes contained in the plan has already been a positive for Argo.
“The right turn lane was secured through a grant process that we went through with the city,” Sosebee said. Construction is scheduled to begin soon on the turn lane from Hwy 11 onto Argo Margaret Road which is expected to ease some of the afternoon traffic along the busy corridor.
Several residents spoke their concerns about zoning districts detailed in the plan and how changes might affect different areas of the city. Some expressed fear that zoning would allow the city to take their private property and repurpose it for another use. Others were concerned that it would crowd out family farms in favor of commercial districts.
“The maps were just samples,” said Mayor Betty Bradley. “The planning and zoning board would implement whatever zoning actually takes shape.”
Several residents, including former councilmember Corky Massey, spoke in favor of zoning but suggested it should begin with a smaller scope and retain current usage for properties in the city.
Local business owner Ryan Carroll spoke against zoning regulations out of concern for government interference.
“Let me tell you what will happen if we have zoning,” Carroll said. “You will have more government oversight in your life. If you’re okay with that, I won’t hate you for it. That’s your opinion as an American citizen and I am glad to go right along with you.”
Carroll expressed concern that local citizens would have to go before a zoning board to make home improvements such as building a garage.
“This is not a one-sided issue,” Carroll added. “If you’re for it, you might not be for it in a couple of years when it affects you.”
Representatives from GMC stressed the maps presented in the plan were just one vision for the future growth of the city. Sosebee asked the residents at the meeting to take blank maps provided at each table and color them with markers showing how they would prefer different areas of the city to be zoned for future use.
“For those that wanted to come out and voice opinions on how you think the city should be zoned, the maps are where you need to speak,” Sosebee said. “This is what we’re going to take back to the office and look over and wade through.”
Sosebee said the firm would return to the next meeting with suggestions based on input from the maps to determine where Argo residents would like to see zoning implemented.
“This is just a plan. Nothing can be changed unless we want it changed,” said Ann Brown. “I am in favor with us going with what we’ve got and building from there,” she added.
“If we had subdivision regulations when all of these subdivisions were built, and they were built by people who lived in Argo their whole lives, who built these subdivisions and didn’t finish these subdivisions. And now we’re holding the bag on having all of our roads fixed ourselves.”
Brown has lived in Argo for 18 years and is serving her third term on the city council. She said the city had no guidelines for the subdivisions when they were built and had no requirement for bonds to complete the roads.
“The city is trying to stop developers and builders from leaving subdivisions half finished and roads not brought up to city code,” said Bradley. “They then leave the citizens responsible for their roads because they have never come before the council to have them accepted.”
Residents of Briar Ridge, Mountain Oaks and other neighborhoods have previously asked the city to intervene and help correct mistakes made by previous administrations when there were no measures in place to ensure work was done correctly.
In March, residents of Briar Ridge said estimates to repair their crumbling roads could exceed $1 million. They expressed concerns for the safety of children who travel on the roads in school buses and for the large elderly population in the neighborhood that could become stranded there as plastic drainage pipes continue to decay.
Bradley said zoning could prevent future neighborhoods from being left half finished by requiring developers to provide a bond to complete roads up to code before construction begins on housing.
No date has been set for the second public meeting with GMC. The next meeting of the Argo council is scheduled for April 24 at 5 p.m.