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Council approves schematics for Community Spaces

by

Neal Embry

At the Oct. 22 city council meeting, the Vestavia Hills City Council approved two schematics related to the ongoing Community Spaces Plan.

After being briefed on the preliminary designs at an Oct. 15 work session, the council approved schematics for both the new community center and the Cahaba Heights athletic fields.

The two-story community center building, located in the former Gold’s Gym building, would include three basketball courts, a banquet space on the second floor with a catering kitchen, staff offices and potentially a sports “hall of fame” in the lobby area, among other amenities.

The community center is expected to connect to both Wald Park and City Hall, and could include an elevated walking track.

At the athletic fields and park area, redesigned fields are proposed, along with two full-service kitchens to service upper and lower-level fields, with a dumbwaiter connecting them. An elevator to help visitors avoid walking up or down the steep hills is also proposed. The idea is to create a new identity at the park, utilize open spaces and upgrade amenities, Stephen Allen with Blackstock Architects told the council at the work session.

The park could also be the future home of a new New Merkel House.

The city is still exploring how to operate the new facilities at the athletic fields. Currently, existing facilities and sports programs are managed by volunteers, but that is unlikely to be enough as the city and its programs continue to grow.

“We cannot continue the way we are now, totally, and be able to have the robust programming that I know you all want and that is possible with these facilities,” City Manager Jeff Downes said at the work session.

The city may explore finding a management company to oversee the facilities and sports programming, or find multiple, individual companies to run different aspects in what would be a public-private partnership, Downes said. The parks and recreation board is expected to be a part of that process, as well, Downes said.

The council was set to decide whether to grant an alcohol license to Slice Stone Pizza and Brew, located at 3104 Timberlake Drive, but no representative from the business appeared at the meeting, concerning some of the council members. As council members had questions about the issue that could not be answered at the meeting, they voted unanimously to table the issue until the next meeting on Nov. 13.

In other news, the council:

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