Dear Neighbors,

Thank you to everyone who attended the last two meetings and helped welcome St. Peter’s Church to our neighborhood. After listening to concerns raised in our first meeting, the church returned with its landscape architect and presented an improved design for the green spaces in and around the proposed church.

We had a full house to see the plan and vote on the Front Yard Parking variance request, which passed 62–2, with two abstentions. The meeting was positive and productive and thankfully short. 

To clarify the purpose of the vote, the following statement, agreed upon by St. Peter’s and based on the city's vote guidelines, was read before the meeting proceeded to the presentation, Q&A, and vote portion. It was included with the results:

“The Crestline Neighborhood was asked to vote on a variance for 'Front Yard Parking.' This vote does not indicate support or opposition to any other or future variance, subdivision, or issue related to 605 or 617 Hagood.”

Please note that the city only brings us votes when all legal requirements have been met. In this case, only the front yard parking variance was submitted, reviewed and voted on for a recommendation to the ZBA. 

Although some are wildly happy that the plan calls for 215 parking spots, others have concerns about excessive parking and its impact on the environment and stormwater. Those topics are being addressed through a separate city process and are not currently under review by the neighborhood association or even the city at the moment. So while there will be a time and place for us to come together and discuss it this was a time sensitive request to allow the church to move forward and bring the issue before the city which they are doing this week. 

The Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) will vote on this same front yard parking variance this Thursday at City Hall:

Pre-meeting (no public comment): 2:30 PM
Public meeting (comments welcome, 3-minute limit): 3:00 PM

If you’d like to share your thoughts for the board the issue for your subject line please reference ZBA2025-00040 Crestline, you can attend in person or email the ZAB liaison and the planning office. 

📧 Erika.Brooks@birminghamal.gov
📧 Kimberly.Speorl@birminghamal.gov

St. Peter’s has shared that, if the front yard variance is approved, they will, allow parking access for nearby businesses (SAWS, Slice, TrainSmarter, Hello Bakery, Dishin It Out, Salon, and others). 

I’m deeply grateful for the kindness and teamwork of everyone involved in this from the earliest days of this petition through this week's meeting. Thanks to your involvement, we’ve made real progress. 

I’ll continue to provide updates until we have a resolution to what's going on with this beloved property. 

With appreciation,

Preserve Crestline Park

*Note on St. Peter's excess parking plan. St. Peter's has indicated that they intend to focus on "Low Impact Development" techniques. These include bio-retention cells, vegetated swales, extended detention systems, infiltration trenches, tuck-under parking, pervious paving or dry wells, to reduce run-off at a rate as established in the City of Birmingham Post Construction Storm Water Design Manual and is required for  parking spaces which exceed the maximum number of spaces allowed as determined by the Director.

The Church would submit a plan that would be reviewed by the City's Stormwater Team, City Engineer and Planning Team. After their review, they send a recommendation to the Director of Planning, Engineering & Permits. The Director will then make a determination based off the review provided by Staff.