Donate today to help Birmingham stay informed.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a zoning change that will allow the Boys & Girls Club of Central Alabama to build a new facility on Huffman Road.
Councilor Clinton Woods said the new site will help fill a gap not only for students but also for parents who are still working when the school day ends.
“We know it can be difficult for working parents who need to make sure their children have a safe and productive place to go when the school day is over,” said Woods, whose district includes the proposed site. “The Boys & Girls Club does a tremendous job of filling that void, and we’re happy to welcome them to our area. Students will be able to continue learning and building skills outside the classroom that will set them up for success later in life.”
According to city staff, the organization plans to focus on financial literacy, GED prep, youth leadership and life skills training for middle and high school students at the new site. Programming will be available after school, on weekends and throughout the summer.
Architect Daryl Rogers and Boys & Girls Club co-CEO Daryl Rogers spoke to the council about the group’s plans.
Tosh said the new facility will be on a 4.5-acre lot at 1259 Huffman Road. The planned building will be 7,500 square feet. The only structure currently on the land is an abandoned barn.
Rogers said the site will be a new building for the group and will not replace any current facilities. Organizers expect to serve about 50 kids a day at the site.
Neighbors to the Huffman Road location during previous committee meetings had expressed concerns about noise. Tosh said on Tuesday that plans for the facility include landscape buffers to mitigate the noise.
During the public comment portion of the hearing, Kathleen Crowder Alexander, who lives near the site, said the barn Tosh mentioned was once a natural gas pumping station. She questioned whether that, along with the parcel having been a landfill in the early ‘60s, could make it unsafe.
“Do we really want children playing on this ground?” she asked. “It’s been vacant for 70 or more years for a reason.”
The council voted unanimously to change the property’s zoning from D-3 single-family residential to C-1 neighborhood commercial.
In other business, the council approved two items related to the ongoing $1 million project to renovate Huffman Ballpark. One item was an additional $30,600 to make the park accessible to people of all abilities, upgrade the lighting system, construct new dugouts, add signage, repair roofs, renovate restrooms and improve fencing at the park.
The council also approved spending $100,000 in District 1 funding for Friends of Huffman Ballpark to assist with planning and organizing youth sports activities and community outreach efforts.
“Bottom line, this is about guaranteeing that our kids have a place where they can build lifelong friendships and memories that you can’t put a price on,” Woods said. “I firmly believe that a lot of what I learned as a kid came from outside the classroom, whether that’s conflict resolution or overcoming adversity. The more opportunities young people have to work through these challenges, the more resilient they will become as they enter adulthood.”
The council on Tuesday also approved a $22,900 agreement with East Village Arts to transform an existing courtyard in Birmingham’s East Lake neighborhood into a public space serving artists, residents and students.
