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Council agrees to sale of public works property, also settles lawsuit with Patchwork Farms neighbors

by

Emily Featherston

The Vestavia Hills City Council approved several large measures that will serve to further the Community Spaces Plan Monday, as the council met for its first regular meeting of May.

The first item was a purchase and sale agreement for 1280 Montgomery Highway, the current location of the city’s public work facility, to HES Investments.

At 2.6 acres and strategically located on U.S. 31, City Manager Jeff Downes said the property has been the subject of consideration in multiple redevelopment efforts, but that the geography of the land as well as some legacy zoning issues have proved difficult to overcome.

“It is a continuing effort of your economic development policy and the efforts of the city of Vestavia Hills to continue the efforts of revitalization on Highway 31,” Downes said, referring to the property as “key” to the success of that effort.

Now, he said, the city has the opportunity to sell the land to HES for the purpose of a Baumhower’s Victory Grille, which is looking to expand into the greater Birmingham area.

The sale agreement for $1.8 million came with a caveat, Downes explained, in that the investment group was only interested in paying that amount if significant grading was done to provide for a more easily-developable piece of land. Otherwise, Downes said, the offer was only $300,000.

Also up for consideration at the meeting was an economic incentive agreement that would split sales tax proceeds for up to $1 million or for 10 years, whichever comes first.

In addition to the potential tax revenue that could be collected, even with the incentive agreement, Downes said, the city also had an interest in agreeing to grade the property related to the Community Spaces Plan.

Ken Upchurch with TCU Consulting Services explained that in order to do several of the projects at Wald Park, there will need to be dirt fill-in up to 20 feet in some places, dirt that would be expensive to bring in — unless the city combined the grading project at 1280 Montgomery Highway with the Wald Park project next door.

Essentially, he said, the city would be moving about 80,000 cubic yards of dirt off of the public works property, which is roughly what the Wald Park project needs.

That would likely lead to about $300,000 in savings, Upchurch said.

“It really is a very, very big win for the Wald Park Community Spaces Plan,” he said.

Downes explained that the sale agreement would enter into an inspection period that would last through mid-September.

The council approved both the sale agreement and the economic incentive agreement unanimously.

Additionally, the council approved a resolution allowing Gold’s Gym to terminate its lease for the building that sits adjacent to City Hall.

Gold’s Gym would have had a lease through 2021, per the sale agreement the city entered in April 2017, but Downes said the company approached the city about leaving early.

Once the Community Spaces Plan was approved and funded, Downes said the city negotiated compensation for the lost rent income as well as a date the lease will end, which is June 30.

Also at the meeting, the council voted to settle a lawsuit with several Vestavia Hills residents who filed a complaint last year as a result of development at Patchwork Farms.

The lawsuit, which was filed against the city, Daniel Corp. and NSH Corp or Signature Homes, alleged that the agreements set forward that would have provided a landscaping buffer between the homes on Old Looney Mill Road and the Patchwork Farms multi-family living development was not honored.

Several motions were filed on behalf of the city and the other defendants to dismiss the case, but Circuit Court Judge Elisabeth French declined those requests and set the trial for the spring of 2019.

The city also filed a cross-claim against NSH at a council meeting in April.

Attorney for the city Bent Owens said that the settlement of $50,000 was significantly cheaper than opting to continue the discovery process of the lawsuit and the inevitable trial.

The council voted unanimously in favor of approving the measure to settle the case.

Other council business included:

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