Vestavia Hills weathers economic, social storms of 2020, mayor says

Despite a pandemic that brought economic trouble for some businesses and unprecedented changes in people’s way of life and social unrest that led to protests, Vestavia Hills as a whole has weathered the storms successfully, Mayor Ashley Curry said in his annual state-of-the-city address today.

With a relaxing of state health orders, business has been able to recover, and year-to-date sales tax revenues are up 4% for fiscal 2020 while property tax revenues have climbed 7%, Curry said in a virtual meeting of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce.

“Despite the pandemic’s economic impact, we are on track to exceed last year’s numbers and produce a healthy budget surplus,” Curry said.

For the first six month of the fiscal year — October 2019 through March 2020, Vestavia Hills had the highest sales tax revenues in the city’s history, he said. Even after the pandemic and business shutdowns occurred, eight-month sales tax revenues (from October 2019 through May 2020) increased from $12.4 million to just under $13 million, records show.

Property taxes going to Vestavia Hills climbed from $14.6 million in the 12 months of fiscal 2019 to $15.7 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2020, according to statistics shared by the city.

Also, the city already has issued a record 134 residential and commercial building permits since Jan. 1, and that’s just 7 ½ months into the year, communications director Cinnamon McCulley said. The previous high of 128 building permits was in 2017, and that was for the whole year, she said.

The city’s strong financial position has enabled it to maintain a AAA rating with Moody’s Investors Service, one of only three cities in the state with a AAA rating, he said.

City services were greatly affected by the pandemic, but city leaders and employees have adapted and pressed on, Curry said. The library offered services online and curbside, and offices such as the tag office stayed open with shields to provide protective barriers between employees and residents, he said.

The City Council continued meeting virtually by Zoom, and the Planning and Zoning Commission has met with limitations on crowd sizes and social distancing protocols.

The city is not just financially strong; it also has continued to provide a superb quality of life, Curry said.

The areavibes.com website for the second year in a row ranked Vestavia Hills as the most livable city in Alabama and among the top 500 cities in the nation. That ranking was based on city amenities, cost of living, crime rate, education offerings, employment, housing and weather.

Safehaven.org, for the third year in a row, ranked Vestavia Hills as the safest city in the state, based on crime data provided to the FBI by the 90 cities in Alabama with a population of more than 5,000.

Some other ranking groups list Vestavia Hills as second or third, but Vestavia still ranks as the safest among cities with a population of more than 22,000, Curry said. The city’s crime rates are 59% lower than the average for the state, he said.

The Vestavia Hills Fire Department, one of 47 fire departments in the state with a Class 2 rating, ranks in the top 4% among fire departments in the state and in the top 5% among all fire departments in the nation reviewed by the Insurance Services Office, he said.

A new heavy rescue unit recently was added at the Cahaba Heights fire station, greatly improving response times for water rescues, structural collapses and trench or road rescues, and a new ladder truck has been ordered and should arrive in Liberty Park in December, Curry said.

The Vestavia Hills school system has a solid history of academic performance, and the city has maintained a close working relationship with the school system to provide school resource officers and joint use of athletic fields, he said.

The city is making good progress on its Community Spaces plan, addressing long overdue improvements in infrastructure and recreational spaces, Curry said.

A project to widen Crosshaven Drive and add sidewalks is well under way and will be followed by construction of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant on Crosshaven, he said.

New amenities have been completed at Cahaba Heights Park, and construction of the new New Merkel House for senior citizens should be completed in the first quarter of 2021, he said.

At Wald Park along U.S. 31, a reconfiguration of ballfields is almost completed, and a new aquatic center with two pools should be finished by Labor Day, he said.

The last project in the Community Spaces plan, which will include new gymnasiums and a parking lot at the new community building, already has begun and should be completed next year, Curry said.

“I know you’ll be very proud of the finished product as we maintain that livability standard that we expect in Vestavia Hills,” he said. “I am optimistic that the pandemic that has rearranged our lives and placed a burden on our businesses will be resolved and that [at] next year’s state-of-the-city [address], we won’t have to dwell on it.”