The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a measure that city staff say will allow the Smithfield housing redevelopment project to move forward.

The ordinance will extend the city’s agreement with the developers, Smithfield Phase II LP, for six months.

“It’s just extending the timeframe for them to close on that piece of property so they can start the construction phase of the project,” the city’s chief financial officer, Chaz Mitchell, told the council.

Councilor Hunter Williams asked why the project has been delayed.

Meghan Venable-Thomas, the city’s director of community development, said the agency providing the financing for the project asked that the city include an extension in its agreement with the developer.

Williams said that was something the city’s staff could have communicated to the council before the vote.

“If it’s a project we’re going to vote on, I would like communication on how it’s going periodically, but maybe that’s just me,” he said.

Council President Wardine Alexander mentioned that staff did update the council during a recent committee of the whole meeting.

The Smithfield project is part of a larger redevelopment initiative involving the west Birmingham neighborhoods of Smithfield, Graymont and College Hills. City leaders say the work will create 1,000 affordable housing units. The hundreds of millions of dollars needed for that construction will be leveraged by a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood program.

Birmingham was awarded the grant in 2023. The homes created by the Choice Neighborhood program are meant to replace the 900 units of Smithfield Court, the city’s oldest public housing site, which was built in the 1930s with Works Progress Administration money.

Smithfield Phase II LP is a tax credit entity that includes the Housing Authority of Birmingham and the developers, the Atlanta-based Integral Partners and Rural Enterprises.

Faith Chapel Managing Microshelters

The council on Tuesday also extended an agreement with Faith Chapel Christian Center for management of the city’s 15 microshelter units for residents experiencing homelessness.

“At its core, I believe government exists to protect its citizens, especially the most vulnerable,” Councilor Darrell O’Quinn said. “That responsibility becomes clearer the closer you get to the local level, where the impact of our work is most direct. All of us here understand the challenges that we’re facing, and we’re the ones most invested in finding solutions that can help our neighbors. This is one of those projects has the capacity to change lives and give people the life-changing opportunities they deserve.”

City staff told the council that the $1.2 million included in the agreement comes from the city’s portion of the American Rescue Plan Act and does not represent any of the $3 million in homelessness outreach included in the mayor’s proposed budget for next year.

In other council business:

• A planned public hearing for the council to discuss revoking the business license for local nightclub Nana Funks was withdrawn because the ownership surrendered its license.
• Two items dealing with adjustments to the parking violation fine schedule and administrative fees did not receive unanimous consent on their first reading, meaning these items will be back on the council’s agenda next week.