Top Stories Montgomery

HOMEWOOD, Alabama — Several Homewood residents pledged to fight Samford University’s efforts to rezone 10 residential lots on Lakeshore Drive so it can build a parking lot for new dormitories.

About 50 people met tonight at the Homewood Public Library to discuss Samford’s plans to ask the city to rezone 10 lots in a Neighborhood Preservation District to institutional so it can build a parking lot to serve three 100-bed dorms it plans to build on the west side of its campus.

The 11-member City Council has yet to vote on the issue, which could come before the council for a vote later this month.

Council members David Hooks and Hunter Payne, who represent Ward 4, which includes Samford and surrounding neighborhoods, said they don’t plan to support the rezoning.

“Either you’re for neighborhood preservation or you’re not,” Payne said. “You all have made it loud and clear to me that you do not want me to vote in favor of changing the zoning to institutional.”

Residents said they were concerned that Samford’s efforts over the years to buy residential homes has hurt their neighborhoods, causing their property values to decline.

They say the homes Samford buys are occupied by students and aren’t kept as well as those owned by residents.

They also complained about Samford not being forthcoming with its future plans for the homes it buys in surrounding neighborhoods.

Sarah Latham, Samford’s vice president for operations and planning, said the university does maintain its homes. She also said the university has reached out to residents to inform them of its plans.

University officials have said neighbors approach them when they’re ready to sell their homes.

Samford uses the homes for employees and students but wants to move those students onto campus with the proposed new dorms, officials attending the meeting said.

Robin Bienvenu, who lives in a neighborhood near Samford, asked officials if they would be willing to withdraw their request before the council. Samford officials did not respond to the request.

Those attending the meeting said they would organize to defeat the request before the council. They encourage those attending to contact residents in other wards and have them call their council representatives.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens – Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.