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TCU asks for more time to develop Community Spaces options

by

Emily Featherston

Due to several recent developments, TCU Consulting Services has asked the Vestavia Hills City Council for more time to refine its proposal for the Community Spaces Plan.

At a council work session Monday, TCU Principal Ken Upchurch told the council he and his team had hoped to have a full presentation, complete with display boards ready to go for the seven or eight options the firm has landed on after months of discussion and dozens of public meetings.

Instead, he said, he was asking for more time.

Upchurch explained that in the last two weeks, numerous items have come to light that have made him and his staff want to put the brakes on putting together a final proposal.

The first, he said, was a "drop" of additional field use data the firm received just over a week prior to the scheduled presentation, data Upchurch said could possibly alter the proposal and that is taking a while to sift through due to its disorganization.

Additionally, he explained, the Board of Education's likely purchase of Gresham Elementary and the impact that would have on configuration at the Old Berry High School property could significantly change what TCU would suggest.

Upchurch said that Interim Superintendent Charles Mason has said that it may take several weeks to finalize a plan if Jefferson County accepts the BOE's offer, and Upchurch said that he didn't want to have already presented a plan to the council and public and then have to change it.

“If we put yours out there right now, we might have to pause and re-think yours," he said.

Upchurch did provide the council with an update that the firm's validation of the budget for the Community Spaces Plan had been completed, and that the overall plan — programming and all — would be about $10 million more than the previously proposed number.

However, he added, TCU has determined the price of each individual aspect of the plan, so the council would have more options than a single proposal.

With no objection from the council, City Manager Jeff Downes explained that the scheduled public meeting on Oct. 25 would be postponed until TCU was ready, and the issue had come before the council in a work session.

After hearing from Upchurch, the council heard from Douglas Dean, chair-elect of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, about a proposal to add a business incubator to the Chamber's services.

If the chamber moves from its current location to, say, the professional suite adjacent to Gold's Gym, Dean explained that the Chamber wanted to propose making room for a place where entrepreneurs could launch their business without having to leave the city.

Downes explained that the Chamber moving was also dependent on what TCU proposed for the overall plan, but that it was something that could be beneficial to the city long term.

Dean said that the Chamber board would be conservative in its estimations of the program's ability to grow, but that he wanted to get the idea out there as the Community Spaces Plan was being discussed, because other cities have seen positive impacts from such programs.

“And I think Vestavia Hills should at least consider it seriously,” he said.

Other Work Session Business Included:

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