Opinion ID: 1668813
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Adoption of the 1990 Land-Use Plan and the Ordinance Zoning the Morrow House as R-3

Text: Tom Magee, the chief planner in the City of Birmingham's Department of Planning, Engineering, and Permits, testified at the trial regarding the land-use plan and the zoning ordinances adopted in 1990. [10] Magee testified: [W]hen I was employed here, one of the first things that the mayor of the City of Birmingham told me was that what he wanted to do was to update our comprehensive plan, because we had neighborhoods that were complaining about the downgrading, if you will  the decline of the single-family residential areas. We had neighborhoods coming to the mayor's office and actually requesting ... but requesting the mayor to ask the planning department to look at the zoning and the land use. The land use had not been updated in 1988 since 1960. The zoning had not been updated since 1960.... And we began the process. We divided the city up in sectors. We began the process of looking at the land use and zoning and making recommendations. And we methodically went around the city and changed the zoning in a lot of areas. We downzoned a lot of property. .... Well, for one, we did  we heard  and this was a constant reply from not just the Highland Park neighborhood and the Southside neighborhoods, but others too  we don't want any more apartments. But the theme though was we want to maintain the single-family integrity of our neighborhood. We want to recapture the single-family integrity by downzoning that property to allow property owners to take a little bit more pride in their property and bring that neighborhood character back. Magee also testified: I had staff actually involved in this process looking at the existing traffic patterns for the neighborhoods that were involved in the sector plan, looking at the demographic information and housing information, looking at it at different environmental considerations, taking all of that information and evaluating it, meeting with the neighborhoods and getting their input into the process  in fact, meeting several times with the neighborhoods and neighborhood groups, meeting with merchant groups and other stakeholders in the neighborhoods, and taking that information. Once we compiled it and put it into map form and other forms of presentation, then we had public hearings. Once we had our public hearings  we had two  we had more than one public hearing, because a couple of them lasted longer than one public hearing. We had public hearings with the planning commission to evaluate the land use and the zoning and then the city council ultimately adopted the zoning part, but the planning commission adopted the land-use part. .... And that was part of the process  was looking at existing land use. We actually took base maps and drove up just about every street in every neighborhood looking at existing conditions, looking at existing land use, existing housing conditions, looking at existing zoning  how it was zoned currently and  or at the time, and then taking existing conditions, the existing travel patterns, demographic information, and putting that into map form. Magee testified that the City learned that, although zoned for higher density uses, many areas of the Highland Park neighborhood were being used for lesser density purposes. He also stated: Recognizing that and also recognizing the goal of the neighborhood being to preserve the neighborhood's integrity, which was one of their stated goals  to preserve the residential character of the neighborhood, it was  we did  we recommended a lot of downzoning for the [Highland Park] neighborhood. [11] Magee testified that, in drafting the proposed land-use plan, his office relied on the land-use plan developed in the 1970s, on population and housing characteristics of the neighborhoods, census data, building-permit information and projected population trends through 2010, existing land-use and zoning information, socioeconomic data, environmental and historical data, the street plan and traffic patterns applicable to the area and the desires of the residential and business communities in the area. The proposed land-use plan was then discussed at neighborhood meetings and at public hearings. Magee testified that, after several modifications, the City of Birmingham adopted the land-use plan in 1990. [12] The land-use plan specified lowdensity residential use for the Morrow House. The city council adopted an R-3 classification for the Morrow House. As noted in the studies performed before the adoption of the 1990 land-use plan, the Southside area, including the Highland Park neighborhood, contained residential uses and higher density uses. Those higher density uses  apartments, townhouses, a law firm, the Donnelly House, the bookstore  continued to exist; they were grandfathered into the zoning ordinances enacted as a result of the 1990 land-use plan. However, the City adopted lower density classifications such as R-3 with the goal of limiting additional higher density uses from coming into the Highland Park neighborhood. The record indicates that, since the 1990 amendments to the zoning ordinances, the city council has not approved any nonconforming uses in the areas around the Morrow House. We conclude that this evidence amply establishes that the city council's adoption in 1990 of the single-family residential zoning classification was not arbitrary and capricious. The purposes for which the R-3 zoning was adopted were substantially related to the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the community. The trial court's finding of fact that the lot on which the Morrow House is located should not have been zoned R-3 in 1990 was clearly erroneous.