Birmingham City Council

Hearing on Carraway Rezoning Proposals Set for Nov. 10

The former Carraway Hospital. Source: Dystopos/Flickr Commons.

The Birmingham City Council has set a Nov. 10 public hearing to discuss the proposed rezoning of several properties around the former Carraway Methodist Medical Center campus.

The hospital, located at 1600 Carraway Boulevard, closed due to bankruptcy in 2008 and has been abandoned ever since. In 2019, Corporate Realty announced plans to redevelop the property into a multi-use site including retail, dining, residential and entertainment spaces. The existing hospital structures will have to be demolished, developers told residents last year, though the existing parking decks will remain.

The public hearing will focus on five specific properties, all of which are proposed to be rezoned to “Q”MU-D Mixed-Use Downtown Districts:

  • 1500 Walnut Hill Circle, currently zoned R-3 Single-Family District
  • 1521 Walnut Hill Circle, currently zoned B-6 Health and Institutional District
  • 1547 Walnut Hill Circle, currently zoned B-6 Health and Institutional District
  • 2212 15th Avenue North, currently zoned R-3 Single-Family District
  • 2214 15th Avenue North, currently zoned R-3 Single-Family District

Last year, the council approved the expansion of the Druid Hills Urban Renewal and Redevelopment Area to include those properties. Earlier this year, Corporate Realty said it would delay planned public hearings regarding the property due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 is rightly at the top of the agenda for all of us, and we didn’t think a public hearing at this time would be wise or fair to the community,” the developer told the Birmingham Business Journal in April. “We did not want neighbors to give up their opportunity to be heard, but we also didn’t want them to attend and take unnecessary chances with their health. In addition, we know our elected leaders’ attention needs to be focused on the crisis at hand. We are taking this time to advance our planning so that when the time is ready, we are ready to get back to work.”