Welcome everyone.

We are met in the chambers of the Huntsville City Council.

It is December eighteenth, twenty twenty five, and the last meeting of the Huntsville City Council for 2025 is now called to order.

We welcome everyone who is joining us here in the chambers tonight, and everyone who is also watching on our many streaming platforms.

We will begin this last meeting of twenty twenty-five by with an invitation offered by one of our Huntsville, Alabama Public Safety Chaplains, Chaplain Nancy Smith is with us, and that will be followed by Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilmember John Meredith.

All who are able and willing would like to stand for the prayer and pledge, please do so.

Thank you for allowing me to begin this with prayer.

Let us pray.

Amen.

We'll move on to approval of the agenda.

Council members, please note the 19D has been withdrawn by the sponsor and will be deleted when we get to that item.

Are there any other changes that need to be made?

Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

And you oppose motion carries.

Council members, you also have the minutes of the regular meeting of the City Council held on December 4th, 2025.

Are there any changes or additions to those minutes?

Seeing none, the minutes will uh stand approved as well.

We have no special recognitions from the mayor.

We do have a couple of other special recognition as well.

Is the microphone?

There it is.

I will begin with that.

Kevin?

We like to recognize it, just come right down here.

We um like to recognize small businesses, and this is a small business that was actually brought to my attention by some of our staff in the city clerk's office.

Apparently, they are very fond of your product, and they wanted to make sure you were recognized.

I personally like your almond croissance quite a bit.

So it is my great honor and privilege on behalf of the city council to present this certificate to a truly remarkable individual and small business owner, Kevin Zummerlin, and to celebrate the inspiring journal journey that led to the creation of a beloved local treasure, L'Étoile Partissari.

Again, the city clerk's office is one of their customers, and many others in the city have recognized their excellent products as well.

But Kevin's story is really interesting.

It begins with a deep commitment to service from his time at West Point, uh, where he graduated in 1990 to his 20 years flying Blackhawk helicopters and leading in missile defense and aviation program management.

He served our nation with distinction and honor.

After required retiring from active duty in 2010, he continued that service as a Department of Defense civilian, a second career marked by leadership, dedication, and excellence.

But Kevin's story doesn't end there.

In fact, it takes a delicious turn.

One evening inspired by, yes, the great British baker.

Aren't we all inspired by that?

Kevin embarked on a new journey, one that blended creativity, faith, and community.

What began as a few pastries shared on social media quickly turned into a passion, a purpose, and eventually a profession.

Kevin earned his degree and certification in pastry arts from the Auguste Escoff School of Culinary Arts, and with his wife Kristen by his side, took a leap of faith.

That leap led him to a conversation with Jason Butler of the preservation company, conversation that turned into an answered prayer and a prayer that turned into a plan.

In a moment of divine timing, Kevin learned that the Army would offer him a lump sum payment to leave his job, the exact amount he needed to start his bakery.

It's amazing when things like that happened.

Even in the midst of a pandemic over the span of a year, Kevin and Kristen opened their home to over 4200 customers, building not just a business, but a community.

On July 1st, 2021, their bakery opened its doors to a long line of community members who had been waiting for that sweet moment.

Today that bakery serves hundreds of pastries every day.

A lot of them are to our city clerk's office, employs more than 20 people, including Kristen, their son Kyle, and their daughter Katie, and stands as a shining example of what happens when courage, faith, and community come together.

Kevin, Kristen, your story is one of service, resilience, and sweet success.

You've enriched our city not only with your confections, but with your heart.

And thank you.

Thank you all.

Appreciate the opportunity to be here, and we just thoroughly enjoy being a member of this community, particularly in this way.

So thank you so much.

Thank you for serving in so many ways.

Oh, picture.

I also want to know if you brought samples.

Yeah, absolutely.

I can always hope.

Thank you again.

Oh, and so now we have more.

Yes.

So last year, was it last year that we started?

Two years ago.

We started the deck the districts light contest.

We have so many wonderful light displays in our community.

We decided we wanted to really highlight some of those.

So we have had applications, submissions of entries of some really outstanding displays, and we sent out our judges to choose the one best in every district.

And so we will honor them tonight by recognizing them.

And we will start with District One.

Ms.

Watkins.

And this year we want you to be able to see them.

So thank you.

Yes.

Good evening, everyone.

So this year's renter, and I hope I say your last name right.

If not, please correct me.

Drew Frenzo.

All right, come on up.

You're the winner.

So if you look on any of the monitors, you'll see the decorations.

They look fabulous, don't they?

They do.

They did a great job.

Thank you.

How are you doing?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And now have District 2.

All right, is Jenny Swear here?

Or the SWEERS?

All right.

Yeah.

I just didn't open it.

That's a really great display.

And I apropos I'm kind of a train geek, so I love the trains.

I know I've heard about it, so I need to get out there.

So there's your certificate signed by all of us and the mayor, and then that's just a copy of the gift card you got.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

You can see that these folks have put a lot of work into this, and they'll get to proudly display their yard sign.

We also thank um downtown Huntsville Inc.

for providing gift cards.

District three, Larry Mooton.

Larry.

Check it out.

Well, we are we really appreciate the work that you have done here.

Um a variety of different displays there.

Well, thank you.

Appreciate it.

So here is your certificate.

And that's a copy of the taking the time to put together such a great display.

District four.

Councilmember Kling.

Woosley Fennel, come on down.

This guy is good.

How are you?

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

And uh just want to congratulate you.

Uh look at that.

Isn't that great?

Uh Hudson Utilities, thanks you.

They're all LEDs.

But anyway, thank you for your great spirit and folks in Christmas fun.

All right.

Thank you.

See you next year.

All right.

That was good.

And now District 5, Councilmember John Meredith.

Thank you.

And the deserving winner in District 5 is Mr.

Troy Moyer.

We like to keep it simple in District 5.

It's very tasteful.

Plus, we have so many HOAs telling us what we can and can't do.

The fact anyone in District 5 was willing to participate is a major accomplishment.

So come on over.

And this is for you.

And don't want to lose that.

That's where the gift card is.

Thank you.

And thank you very much.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to everyone who has decorated for the holidays and showed your your spirit.

You add so much to our sense of community, and we appreciate that.

Thanks to our judges and to the staff as well.

We have an outstanding City Council staff who work this project for us.

We will move on now to announcements.

Items, Councilmembers, items 21D and E have been requested for consideration by the Administration.

They will be introduced at 21 DE, and then we will move for consideration.

It will require unanimous consent of the Council to move forward.

Also, we would remind you that in 2026 we will resume our regular schedule of second and fourth Thursday meetings.

We only do first and third in November and December because of the holidays.

So we will be back to our second and fourth meetings beginning on January 8th.

We will go on now to public hearings.

Mr.

Irwin.

The property actually had an accident in the garage area.

A vehicle run into it.

It has been abandoned.

It currently has an out-of-state corporate owner.

The property is deteriorated for abandoned car and other items.

So we are seeking authoration, authorization this evening to abate this adjunct public nuisance on behalf of the neighbors.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

The public hearing on this matter is now open.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Please come to the agenda to the podium.

And if you'll state your name and address for the record.

Thank you.

Welcome, Mr.

Clark.

I want to commend the Council, Mayor Battle, Councilwomen and Councilmen, for being sensitive to what the community requires to maintain the standards that we have come to expect here in Huntsville.

I came to Huntsville 38 years ago expecting to only stay here a year.

And that's I've stayed because of the quality of the schools and the community and the neighbors and the friends.

And my realtor says, uh, Bill, you know that eyesore across the street is going to cost you 30 to $50,000.

Now, guys, that's not chump change.

This house has been here for a couple of years.

The owner died of a heart attack.

He was only 44.

That was in February of 24.

Then in November of 24, an automobile ran into the garage, just destroyed the integrity of the upper story and all of that.

It's taken a long time to address the issue of we need to get rid of this.

Maybe the analogy I should draw here is if you go to the grocery store and you buy a five-pound bag of potatoes, and then you take it home and you discover, lo and behold, there's a rotten potato in the middle of the bag.

What do you do?

Well, you throw away the potato because you don't want to ruin the other potatoes.

727 bursai is a rotten potato, gentlemen and ladies, and it needs to be removed.

This is probably not isolated.

I thank the community services for working this problem.

And there's others, countless others that need to be taken care of.

And it may seem to be a knit in the things that are going on in Huntsville.

Lord knows we have some monumental things occurring.

But we must pay attention to the housing area, the community.

It's what makes this city live and breathe, and it's why we are recognized for the progressive community of people that we are.

That is why we are recognized for the progressive community of people that we are.

So please, I hope you will take favorable action on this, and uh let's get rid of this ISOR and move on.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

Is there anyone else who wishes to comment on this item?

Joy Johnson, I live on West Arbor in Huntsville.

Um I just want to say that, of course, the most important thing about housing is the investment in your house.

Not that it is a place for people to live, but it's that money that you can make out of it, right?

I am being ironic in case you missed it.

Thank you, Ms.

Johnson.

Is there anyone else who wishes to comment?

Hearing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Motion to approve.

Mr.

Meredith made the motion, Mr.

Kling seconded.

Uh is there any discussion?

Questions?

All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you, Council Members.

We will move on to 9B.

9B is public hearing authorizing community development to assess the cost of cutting overgrown grass andor weeds against certain properties in consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes again, Mayor Battle, Council members.

Uh this resolution authorizes the assessment for properties that were in violation of the grass and wheat ordinance.

The resolution will cover 50 properties with a total amount of $16,350 and 52 cents, with an average per property assessment cost of $327.01 cent.

39 of these properties had in the city local owners.

Four of these 50 properties had out of the city owners, and one or seven had out of state ownership.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

Is there anyone here?

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone here who wishes to address this matter?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith.

Second from Mr.

Little.

Any comments?

I would make one comment, and that is that this is the first time I have noticed that we have more in-city property owners, like a lot more than we do out of state.

So that's an interesting track.

Any other comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin 9C is a public hearing on the rezoning of 380.93 acres of land lying on the south side of Alabama Highway 20 and east of I-65 from residents to be district and highway business C4 district to plan development housing district LUI 56 and the consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

Good evening, Council Members, Mayor Battle, Thomas Nunez, Manager of Planning and Zoning Services.

As stated, this item is located south of Highway 20 and just west of Interstate 65.

If you recall, this item was annexed earlier of 2025, and we bring forth the presentation of a petition for the property owner to present uh what is called the Westmore Landing Plan Development.

This property through the Westmore Land and Development, this property is uh primarily surrounded around Willard Wildlife Refuge that includes the Singing River Trails, Limestone County Boat Ramp, and River Deltas formed by the Tennessee River.

The proposed PD utilizes the concept of transex, a geographical uh cross section revealing a sequence of environments to guide urban planning and development.

This approach, uh, also known as form-based or smart code emphasizes urban form, walkability, and mixed use.

What you have before you in this particular depiction shows the particular this transects that are being proposed.

There are essentially six transects labeling T3, T4, and T5.

In the T3 neighborhood, this is uh the area uh featured moderate development with varied residential uses and integrated open spaces.

Uh vegetation throughout the development defines streets, parks, uh, with a balance of leaning towards landscape over buildings.

Additionally, in the T3 Hamlet, it complements the T3 neighborhood district, residential patterns with appropriate scale commercial live work and mixed use areas.

These T3H areas are pedestrian-oriented with attached residential uses and open spaces for neighborhood gatherings.

Buildings and hardscapes have more have a more significant presence to define activity nodes and formal open spaces.

In the T T4 neighborhood district, this is intended for more intense urban residential developments.

Buildings may be taller and closer to the street, creating a denser streetscape.

These neighborhoods integrate single-family, single-family attached and multifamily housing within walking distance of commercial areas and neighborhood-scaled open spaces featuring connected street systems with sidewalks and bikeways.

Within the T4 resident village area, these are pedestrian-oriented with various attached multifamily and commercial uses and open spaces for community gatherings as well.

The buildings and hardscapes have significant presence with mid-rise heights and zero setback build two lines for vibrant commercial activity.

As we get more to the core, this is the T5 neighborhood area.

This is the densest residential transect.

It provides population density to support adjacent T5 TC commercials and office uses.

This T5 neighborhood builds are typically multi-story, mid-rise with uh parapet roofs, and many include structure parking, buildings generally front streetscapes with shallow setbacks and residential stoops for commercial ground floors to encourage pedestrian activities.

And lastly, we have the T5 Town Center, a regional gathering place for living, working, shopping, and connecting.

Buildings are predominantly urban, mixed use with ground floor commercial and upper floor residential, office and hospitality uses.

This is the open space plan that highlights a lot of the characteristics of the Westmoreland development and how it is high on the action of open space and community activities and spaces where people can gather, essentially taking away the prominence of the vehicle and seeking the actions of the pedestrian within a community.

Through that, you will see more this uh T3 open space intent, just more neighborhood and hamlet where neighborhoods have some activities that would be more geared just towards playgrounds and walkability, but in the Hamlet, they may be a little bit more active, such as uh such recreational spaces as maybe in skate parks, basketball, uh, and even um bocce or other uh area um places of um sports and entertainment.

Then again, as you continue to mold through this development, you see the intent of the T4 open space that becomes more of the gathering space in the long run for uh the community to move through through through the development.

So, even with the PDH application document includes tables detailing permitted land uses, and in this process, you now see the different streetscapes that are formed within the development itself.

Um there are 13 different street networks within this development, and of those networks, you have what is uh the mixed use with greenway trail, which is a dedicated parking area of a 70-foot right-of-way.

Um sidewalks are six feet, uh, furnishing zones are four to six feet, parking areas are eight feet.

As you can see, they are depicted clearly in the different um street sections.

Um, these are proposals that will become before you as adoptions.

And um additionally, in the back end of my presentation will show up as uh what I state as modifications from our traditional zoning and subdivision regulations.

So in the mixed use dedicated parking, you have a 57-foot right-of-way, and through this process, we always uh protect the actions of our uh fire marshal and the uh IFC codes, so they are also uh depicted in notes to make sure that this development forms in the proper way through the street networks of the neighborhood boulevard or even with unmarked parking or with marked parking.

And more streetscapes for you to evaluate.

This is your neighborhood primary street with unmarked parking of 53-foot right-of-way, and also a neighborhood secondary street of unmarked parking for 49-foot right-of-way.

And lastly, you have or just before the last one, you have your traditional neighborhood one-way and neighborhood collectors with greenway trails, dedicated parking throughout the development.

And again, alleyways, and you'll see in later in my presentation, a modification to the alleys as they are designed in this development.

Through the building type overview, you have several different types per transect.

And as the transects continue to develop, the T3 allow for clustered housing, duplex housing, mixed use, and amenities.

Those that are not highlighted are not permitted, such as in the T3 district of the housing section, mixed use would not be permitted.

But live work, townhomes, single family rear, single family front entry, carriage homes, and there will be no commercial in the neighborhood, but in the T3 village section, you will be able to have the permitted commercial facilities.

This is the depiction of the T3 residential through that development.

And more for the T3 Hamlet Hamlet that focuses on more service entries as you or service components to the neighborhood and creates walkability throughout the development.

As you move into the T4 building types and overviews, you get a little bit more intense housing styles.

These are cluster housing and duplex and stack flats.

Stack flats we would look at as a traditional multifamily, but with a single entryway and housing within that development as well.

And also in the village, you will be able to compromise complement with live workplay with amenities and housing on the upper floors of that development of those sections.

This is a depiction of the T4 residential with a mixture of single family and duplexes and some more intensive stack housing that creates the community in general.

Then we move to the village section, a depiction of those that uh shows the mixed use with live work above and um more congregating in office and retail and service components within the development.

This is our T5 building types.

You are in the T5 section, you are still allowed to do housing, but more intense uses that really bleed into the action of um commercial development centered around uh the overall housing development that is happening, a more um commercialized for um Saturday, Sunday, and everyday activities.

And this is a depiction of that within more of an urban scale with multifamily stack housing development throughout.

And again, with the the town center are uh has a maximum height of eight stories, so you see some of those developments in this depiction.

When we go through this development, the single family front entry product, these are houses homes that have a front yard setback or widths as minimum as 18 feet and within a maximum of 55 feet widths.

So throughout their setbacks, are really to bring the structure more to the front, um, bringing more of a community aspect versus um the aspect of uh really open spaces and um homes that sit further back on lots.

Again, creating more of a traditional neighborhood uh design within the development.

This is our the cluster housing, which is uh uh traditional to how we do some of our multifamily housing within the development.

Uh the front of the units may not face the rear of another, and rear loaded with no street access is allowed and is available side and or rear surface parking is also allowed.

Uh, this really focuses on the open space between the structures, uh, giving complete access between those and providing distance bus bluffers between the clusters.

So within the development, you can do as minimum as 16, but with a maximum of 36 within the uh or a minimum of three and a maximum of 36 of the clusters.

But within the development, we also look overall that you don't want clusters just popping up throughout in a row.

So there are distance restrictions on the clusters as that are as they are planned out in the development that they may have a separation of approximately 400 feet surrounding to really make the community form in a base that is intended to that focuses on the single family, the duplexes, and also the cluster housing to keep create uh a true uh affordable and mixed income housing development.

Within this development, they also, with a primary structure, you will be allowed to have an accessory dwelling unit.

And that dwelling unit would now have no more than 60% of the primary building habitable space, and locations may be attached, semi-detached, or detached structure.

Separation between buildings does not apply when ADU is attached to the primary building.

And then all of these structures within the development also have a minimum raise floor elevation of 18 inches within the development to be able to add additional structural components or porches that don't actually encompass the setback but create more of a style and form within the development itself.

Again, this development pivots away from our traditional zoning to more of a form-based and aesthetic design project.

This is a depiction of your mixed-use building that would be allowed in the T4, T5, and TC district town center districts, just showing a quick depiction of that with minimum setbacks and focused on the project the development and the centered uh buildings themselves, creating more of an urban core.

Through this process, you can see the different building types that I just depicted and shows where each area is allowed.

Through T3 through T5, you are allowed to do cluster housing, single family, and where there is not a square, those uses are those uh home types or structure types are not allowed throughout the development.

As you can see, there are no mixed-use developments in the portions that go through the neighborhood, with the exception of the T5 neighborhood district, which is primarily in the center of the development.

This is a permitted land use chart.

Um traditional neighborhood designs and even form-based code don't focus on this, but it's really important that we do hunt Huntsville because we want to make sure that we protect this development to not allow for certain uses to enter the development that would not be uh appropriate to the form and how this project was overall designed.

So, through that, um you have licensing for alcohol beverage that meets um the standards as applied by the state, but some some modifications that we asked for in the end in regards to how those measurements are done, but primarily in intact with how Huntsville does things currently.

Additionally, if you see a half um half circle, those come with conditions of the development throughout.

And these are more additional permitted land uses from industrial, institutional, medical use, office, recreational, and certain even some transportation aspects.

And this is one of the most important and critical parts of this uh development uh proposal itself, as the development team is present and also asked for particular modifications before the council.

These modifications either come up in our um zoning ordinance or in our subdivision regulations.

So through that, um I'll go through each type where one through uh 15 and what the intent is there.

So for the street cross sections, the mineral right-of-way uh and pavement widths, these are the street sections that I showed in the very beginning that speaks to the different types of right-of-ways that are being proposed.

Uh the modification of the street cross sections are in accordance with our street sections, which are part of this development in pages 21 through 27 per the PDH submittal packet.

These modifications will still promote safe streets by creating an environment that encourages drivers to slow down and be watchful for pedestrians, a technique common in traditional neighborhood developments.

The second item is road grade and improvements and curb.

Uh traditionally, we have an L-mounted curb within our development on um within our subdivision regulations, and this development would act for a mountable header ribbon and/or standard post curves shall be allowed where streets are but parks, common open spaces and/or alleys in all transects.

Uh may be used when design conditions appropriately, and alleys as shown in the Westmore landing street sections may have an inverse crown ribbon curving and a five-foot furnishing zone behind the back of curb.

Many of this for like our alleys, we usually do a in um a crowned uh street section where the drainage forms to the outsides and drains into our stormwater.

In this case, they will have invert and everything would happen in the very center of the alleyways, allowing for drainage to move away from the traditional properties.

The justification there is to allow for varying street character, uh, match the surrounding building character, and also the diversity and curb types, accommodates fire access, site condition, and promotes more durable construction for alleys.

The next and three is access and easements.

Uh the modification here is for pedestrian ways and paseos, which are essentially open spaces, shall provide access and will be labeled on the final plat.

These private easements for ingress and egress and public access will exclude any portion of a lot, but can include utility easements.

All for sales, whether they provide private or public access, will be maintained by the Westmore Landing Owner Homeowners Association.

The justification here is that these changes allow lots of lots to have access to public access corridors that can include utilities.

This also encourages walkability and comp communal open spaces while decreasing pavement and road widths.

This similarly goes back to the cluster housing component where that some of the houses faces within within the development and allows for the cross access for those sections, but also moves people through those particular areas as well.

The next item is an intersections radii.

Commonly, our intersection radii in our subdivision regulations is that of a 30-foot, 35-foot radius.

In this development, they are particularly asking for a 15-foot radii that encourage traffic to slow while promoting pedestrian safety and traffic calming.

Excessive turning radii allow vehicles to make turns without slowing down sufficiently to look for pedestrians, thus the reduction in the radio radius promotes safety.

Number five, in the street material and traffic calming.

This is raised medians using different materials, bricks, stamp, concrete, brick crossways will be permitted within the public right-of-way in T3 Hamlet commercial, T4, village commercial, and T5 town centers for the purpose of promoting and encouraging traffic calming and enhancing pedestrian safety.

High traffic pedestrian areas often require additional traffic calming devices and/or changes in materials to encourage slower speeds.

Also varied sidewalk materials to connect public and private realms.

Number six, the lot orientation.

So through the planning commission and subdivision regulations, you are required to ask for modification of our non-radio or non-perpendicular lot lines.

Within the development, these will be allowed by right without a modification before the planning commission.

So non-radio side lot lines are permitted without the necessary necessity of approval by the planning commission.

This allows for cluster lots and more efficient land layouts.

Number seven, traffic control devices, again, this is in conjunction with traffic control devices.

There are street lights and street name signs may be deviated from the Huntsville standards as Westmore Land and Homeowners Association maintains such and is if applicable.

If they do not, they pivot back to the manual of uniform traffic control devices, and it would be the City of Huntsville's responsibility to replace with standard materials.

Again, through this design, it allows for them to pivot away from the traditional uh street lights that we have in our neighborhoods and then have a more form-based street lights that encompasses the development overall.

And justification is that this allows for upgraded, more traditional and timeless traffic control and devices.

Number eight, the perimeter landscaping.

This is eliminate the uh the request is to eliminate the requirement for perimeter landscaping along common lot lines for parking areas where the common lot lines fall within or adjacent to the shared parking areas.

The justification here is that share parking serves as a back of house parking, loading and trash collecting areas and all allowing efficiency between lots, keep these areas smaller with less deplic uh duplicative of vehicular circulation paths.

Essentially, where our regulations state you have to have the division where property line exists of landscaping between the two, but within the shared areas, uh you would be able to they would be able to pivot from that and have back of house parking.

Number nine is the single family lot and building standards.

So lot sizes, lot widths, yard setbacks, lot coverage, lot frontage, building setbacks, density, open space requirements, and height regulations are modified to meet those standards as defined for each transect and building type as I presented previously.

Uh this would allow for town homes, which our regulations require you to have four to eight within this development, they would be a minimum of three with a maximum of eight in a row.

Townhouses may have a contiguous front facade.

Now, within the design code, they do some articulation through architecture, and they also have a complete design review committee of every structure that is developed in this um project.

And through there, there shall be no minimum of private open space requirements or for town homes meeting the quarter mile radius of a formal open space uh tape type or table.

Lastly, in that justification of the accessory dwelling units, each single family, rear-loaded, single-family, front-loaded town home, manor house, live work, lot may continue one ex or uh contain one accessory dwelling unit in addition to the principal dwelling with full plumbing, not to exceed 60 percent of the primary build inhabitable floor area and a separate outbuilding and shell have no minimum street frontage requirements and no maximum lot coverage in the rear yard, unless this is no alley in which 10 feet minimal setbag must be maintained.

Accessory structure shall be so um in style and massing to the primary dwelling and follow the bulk and high standard in the Westmore landing PD document.

Uh this justification is because some of these uses we don't allow or they are pivoting from, particularly within the town homes, uh we have a requirement of a three-front, three-foot articulation in the structure from one structure to the other when dealing with a town home or single family attached development.

So these modifications would allow for them to do such as presented in the development.

Mr.

Nunez, I hate I hate to interrupt you.

You're providing us with lots of information.

I I'm assuming we're going to learn more about these as the development goes on.

Can you can you just kind of summarize some of these others for us?

Sure, certainly.

And you and provide perhaps you could provide this information by email talk.

You have the full document and I can't already attach.

It is already attached.

So moving right in that development, you have the multifamily is another.

Uh we traditionally have building types that have a um what we have as a density controls, they're moving away from that.

That is a modification of a part of this development.

The parking requirements are a modification whether they um would like to do more controlled parking is permitted in the first five feet of a rear yard with access from an alley and justification is parking requirements are reduced to align with walkable mixed use, community needs.

And permitted land uses that goes through where we've asked for the land uses to fit in particular areas.

For instance, through the process of zoning, um going back a couple of sheets just to show you in the very beginning.

The oh, I could have done it.

Through the C4 area, the very center of the development is designed as a C4, and the rest of the project is our residence 2B.

Some of those uses are not permitted within C4, so those asking of the permitted land uses in that modification would allow for those uses to exist because C4 may not allow for that use to exist by right under our current zoning ordinance.

And of course, our general um front yard types and general application for design standards.

Uh through this, I want to thank um multiple individuals are, of course, our planning staff, our engineering, um, stormwater, our water pollution control, legal department, our fire department, but most importantly, uh the representation that has worked on this project consistently, uh, which is land innovations, Rochford development, and these individuals are here.

Smith G is also present, and uh shoal engineering as well.

So I'll turn the floor over to you for coaches.

A lot of information.

Council members, let's hold questions until after we have the public hearing, because we still have to do that.

So we'll open uh the floor now for a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to come and comment on this item may come to the the uh the microphone.

Please state your name and and address for the record.

My name is Sarah Colletti.

My address is listed correctly on the sheet.

I am a resident of Hartle, Alabama.

And uh the way I'll be planning expansions, it's looking like I might soon be in John Mayors district.

Um I saw the Decatur City line right there.

Just goes to show the interconnectedness of this area.

But uh I gotta ask, what's the point of a walkable neighborhood that's not connected to downtown by public transit, unless it will only be accessible to folks who can afford drivers?

Um we need more affordable housing in Huntsville, not just apartments that start out at 5,000 a month or whatever these are gonna be.

Um I find that every time we ask y'all for affordable housing, y'all start talking about caves and how tall b buildings aren't an option around here.

I feel like this Westmore landing and the building that we're in right now, in fact, are um definitely proof that y'all can build tall buildings that have plenty of uh affordable housing in it, not just this waterfront, walkable without public transit, idyllic.

We can do affordable public housing in the city, and y'all know it.

And that's what we're asking for.

Because I have to ask also, what weighs more?

The Walmart furniture that poor people can afford and the the cheapest possible appliances that are our landlords can get away with putting that break after a month, or this elaborate marble dais that y'all have up here, and I imagine those are nice ergonomic uh supple leather chairs y'all are sitting in.

And I can't imagine anything I could afford at the thrift store or at Walmart weighing as much as that day is on its own.

So that's my question.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who wish to comment?

Please come to the podium.

Hello.

I'm Nancy Grayson van Belkenberg.

I live at 108 Gates Avenue Southeast.

Uh I have three comments.

I agree with her on the fact that it seems absolutely unconnected to anything in the area.

Uh it's too dense in my estimation.

I don't think I would want to live there.

I don't know about the rest of heavy.

But I'm sure some people would find it just right.

Um I'm not knocking that, but I think it it just really is too dense.

And the too many mods being asked for.

We have uh it's being asked to change from a residential to B district, which allows for is that two, it's it's it's fairly fairly dense, but it's not like this.

We have we have 360 acres uh farm, and this is 380, which is two 20 acres more.

And it just strikes me that to cram that into the little space that we have, it wouldn't work.

And I just wish you good luck.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Ben Balkenberg.

Is there anyone else who wishes to comment?

Joy Johnson, West Arbor Drive, Huntsville, Alabama.

Welcome.

Um uh excited to hear about ADUs getting approved somewhere.

When are we gonna get them everywhere else?

Why not?

Let's go.

Uh I'm also wondering, just uh uh in this huge piece of real estate.

Um we're p making a lot of place supposedly for humans to live, but sitting here in the midst of the sixth mass extinction.

Uh what are you doing about the things that are living there now?

Anything.

Uh uh uh I would love I heard a lot of uh acknowledgement to a lot of different departments.

I heard nothing about the sustainability committee and what they had to say about this.

I would love to hear from them.

I want to know if uh this lighting that they're gonna have that's special mood lighting for this sort of place is gonna uh follow dark skies guidelines because I know that you're gonna request a plat restriction that gets rid of grass uh uh non-native species and says everybody's gotta plant native species in order to support the bio, the biome that is there right next to Wheeler Wildlife Refuge.

Important stuff.

And while we're at it, some of these common spaces could be maybe community gardens.

I I know you're gonna do a restriction for that.

You're gonna require community gardens, right?

Right.

And also that chickens will be allowed, right?

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Johnson.

Is there anyone else who wishes to comment?

Seeing none of the the uh public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Kling.

This is your opportunity now to make comments or ask questions, Council members.

Mr.

Kling?

I guess I'd like to ask the department.

I know it's not your under your jurisdiction, but in their normal process where when things are built, uh that public transit takes an evaluation about you know refining and readjusting its existing routes over what is it like once a year or twice a year that they do that.

And is it conceivable that after this thing has been completed that uh public transit would evaluate that for the feasibility of adding it on to uh the shuttle system?

Under the direction of the uh director of transit, Keisha Bryan, that would be informed that would happen under her.

They do evaluations every two to three years.

And again, this project in itself is uh probably a 30-year-plus project.

So as development continues on, there will be evaluations of how we connect this and uh continue to grow our transit um um components for not only just this development but others that are more focused in the core.

I want to make sure that we get the ridership necessary to continue to make sure that that is uh economically feasible for us to provide for uh transit to our citizens, because that's a primary focus and a thing that we definitely need to do.

However, over the next 20 to 25 years, you would therefore see that um being evaluated in the in an area of this nature.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Any other questions?

I do have one question, and that is as these concepts were put together, there is some wonderful wildlife while the preserve is right there.

Has was there consideration given into how it was going to be interacting with that great opportunity to bring people into nature?

That is absol uh that is definitely an action that we looked at.

What I will uh allow for is Mr.

David Horworth with land innovations to come up and speak to some of the studies that they did in components uh to one keeping Wheeler wildlife exactly the way it is, but not impeding on that.

This area has been primarily farmland, so there's been no living um like item home or property or people or uh even cattle or horses on this property in the last hundred years.

It has been primarily farmed and um uh cultivated for those particular actions.

But I'll allow for Mr.

Horworth to uh come and speak to some of the studies and things that they have done to make sure that this development is informed with Westmore landing.

Good evening, Council members and Mayor Battle.

Thank you all.

Could you introduce yourself just for the record?

Yes, ma'am.

My name is David Horeth, President of Land Innovations.

Uh we currently have our office up and running at 4865 Arrowhead Landing, Mooresville, Alabama.

So we're excited to be here.

Uh my development partner, Trey Rochford with Rochford Realty Construction is also here along with any of our other consultants.

So we um have been meeting with Singing River Trail.

We co-office with them and the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge for the last 16 months.

They have been incredibly helpful, uh, thoughtful with their input and have actually in your package produced a support letter.

Uh we did not expect that to happen.

Um, but they had felt strongly uh that that our development philosophy, uh, which is uh on sustainability and um a variety of water treatment, that this would actually improve the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge along with coordinated access points to not only allow access to Limestone Bay, but to educate the public on the decisions that they make on a day-to-day basis and how that impacts not only the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, Limestone Bay, but ultimately the Tennessee River.

So all of that is in your package and uh here to answer any other questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Any other comments or questions?

Mr.

Merrick.

Um it's been a privilege working um with Mr.

Horrell with uh Mr.

McCreary and a lot of the other folks that have been involved in this.

Um this has been a long time coming.

It's been started and stopped and started and stopped at the Planning Commission level.

So they've jumped through more hoops than I can remember any developer jumping through, whether it was a putt or not.

Um so thank them for their hard work and again the planning department and others uh that were in involved in this.

And a big kudos uh to Claudia uh who probably has an extra gray hair or two from working this project.

But thank you all.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Meredith for recognizing the great work that has been done.

Any other comments?

All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

The motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Thomas, for a very thorough presentation.

We now have two public hearings to be set.

10A is a resolution to set a public hearing on the zoning of 4.91 acres of land lying on the east side of Hillcrest Avenue Northwest and north of U.S.

Highway 72 West to Highway Business C4 District and the introduction of an ordinance pertaining to the same and to rescind resolution number 25-954.

Motion to set the public hearing for January 22nd, 2026.

Second.

All in favor, please indicate.

I proposed motion carries.

Thank you.

10 B is a resolution to set a public hearing on the zoning of 4.65 acres of land lying on the south side of Highway 72 East and east of Shields Road to Highway Business C4 District, the introduction of an ordinance pertaining to the same and to rescind resolution number 25-956.

Motion to uh set the public hearing for January 22nd, 2026.

Motion by Mr.

Meredith, I believe the second was by Mr.

Kling there.

He beat you by a hair.

Um all in favor, please indicate.

I motion carries or any opposed motion carries.

Uh, before we go to on to agenda-related public comments, we should make everyone aware that we are under a tornado watch until 9 o'clock.

So just be watching for that.

We'll move on to agenda-related public comments.

We have one person uh signed up for that.

Uh quick introduction.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on matters relating to specific content of items on the meeting agenda.

We welcome hearing your ideas, concerns, and questions about city business.

Um, and you know the drill, Ms.

Johnson, approach the microphone, stating your name and city of residence.

Um each speaker may address the council for three minutes.

Um the only one signing up is Ms.

Joy Johnson.

I guess when somebody else was above me on that.

It was, it was Mr.

Carter, and he spoke in the uh public hearing already.

Uh Joy Johnson, I live on West Arbor Drive in Huntsville, Alabama.

Um first of all, I notice on the agenda these two items that you actually said you want to bring forward and and finalize in 21 uh D and E.

I would really like to know what this is about.

So I hope that there will be lots of explanation there.

Um I wanted also to take this opportunity, uh especially since at the last City Council meeting, it was pointed out that maybe instead of hiring outside workers for everything, you could actually have city employees that do the things that you need to get done.

And then maybe the workers would have a little bit more security and benefits and retirement.

Uh I would hope that the city does a decent job of that kind of thing.

Um whereas when you hire corporations to do everything, like Parkside Cottages LLC.

Uh Boys and Girls Clubs of North Alabama Incorporated.

Wiregrass Construction Company Incorporated.

Understand that the motivation for corporations is profit.

It's not worker security.

It's not taking care of workers.

They will fire your butt in a heartbeat.

There is no security there.

Um I just thought I would take the opportunity to just point out this, especially since last time it was pointed out that the city could hire people.

Concept.

Um I really would like to know uh about uh 20K, this uh uh MOU with something called the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, if somebody could uh take a moment to thoroughly explain that as well so that we can be educated and there is lots of transparency.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ms.

Johnson, we will move on now to the Mayor's Mayor's comments.

Mayor Battle.

Thank you, Madam President and Council.

Um for the record, um I would like to appoint Christopher Jones to the land trust of North Alabama Board for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2027.

Last week me were several people, most a lot of us uh were out at the opening of space uh the the kickoff of Space Command uh at the location in the site of Space Command, the first time I think we have ever seen all seven uh representatives from the State of Alabama and two senators from the State of Alabama plus um congressmen from South Tennessee, all in one place, uh first time in in the history that I can ever remember that that happening.

Um they promised uh support for the project and to make sure that the project uh worked well, and we'll you'll probably see a little bit more travel budget uh happening over the next uh several months as we go to Washington to work on making sure that uh we have the tools necessary and the infrastructure necessary uh to get those 1400 people on the arsenal and get them uh back home each day.

Um that's uh gonna be one of our tasks as a city to to be working on, and we'll be working on that over the next uh next several months just to get the uh some of the uh planning and some of the um some of the funding in place.

Um also last week uh Eli Lilly announced that they were building a six billion dollar campus out at the Green Byron uh 565 uh uh intersection, some city land that we had purchased uh for some very uh looking for uh just the right uh client to come in there or just the right business to come in there, one that would uh if you saw it, it would you would say, wow, this is a this is a pretty cool uh community.

They they work very hard on um being uh on the on the cutting edge of technology.

And uh I think that that will um that will happen as Eli Lilly starts their their building as a four-year build.

Um over that four-year period, uh they will hire 3,000 workers, which won't all come at once, won't all be there at once.

Uh they will be there, you'll have a grading crew, then you'll have a foundation crew, then you'll have a uh a shell crew, then you'll have an electrician crew, then you'll have a gas water and all the other things, and uh as we build this uh at the very end, uh is all the uh building tradespeople go back home, go back to their homes, we'll end up with 450 workers at that uh plant, which is uh is very uh achievable for us uh over the next you know, when we have five years to get ready for them.

So we've had some um good uh I'll say let's have say that we've had some good successes over the last couple of weeks.

Um and we're looking forward to being able to make sure that we can provide opportunity and and this is just jobs and opportunity, uh gives people a chance to if you've got a you know if you've got an entry-level job, you got a chance to move up in the world and uh maybe get a get a better job.

Uh if you uh are coming out of high school and don't want to be a rocket scientist or a uh uh chemical engineer or or or maybe somebody in the biotech area uh and you want to do manufacturing, you have that chance to do that.

So uh what we're offering is opportunity for all, and I think it's um uh a very good thing for our city as we can offer opportunity for good jobs for people uh throughout the area.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Mr.

Uh Mayor Battle.

We'll move on to Councilmember Comments, and we'll begin with Ms.

Watkins.

Good evening.

Uh I want to start off by saying uh a couple of events I attended on December 5th.

I attended the 73rd annual HPD graduation.

Congratulations to the new cadets that are now police officers.

On December 7th, I had the clause for celebration, and I want to thank several people.

First, I want to thank Parks and Rec.

They did an exceptional job setting up David DeLisser and Kent Ballard state the entire time.

They made sure everything went smoothly.

And I want to thank them so much along with Parks and Rec for their work.

I want to thank Jemison High Bien and Choir for coming and providing the entertainment.

They did a great job.

Uh women in the NAACP volunteered to serve um Hot Chocolate and Cookies, so thank you.

I want to thank my co-workers, Glenn and Cara Reese.

They played Mr.

and Mrs.

Claus, and I'm telling you, the kids were impressed.

They loved them.

And we had about 500 people attend.

So it was a huge event.

So thank you so much for supporting.

Uh this press Friday I had the pleasure of reading at First Baptist Missionary Baptist Church to a kindergarten class.

And let's just say, it was hard reading the book because I had a million questions coming while I was reading.

But I had fun.

Um 1216 this past Tuesday, we had a press conference here in the lobby.

And what it was is North Huntsville Connect Coalition.

It's a group of bar owners as well as restaurant owners who have came together, and they have a system now where they scan your ID.

You cause a problem in their establishment, you're banned in all of the establishments.

So I want to say that I think that's an excellent idea.

It's going to curb a lot of nonsense and foolishness.

And for these business owners to come together and collaborate the way they have, that says a lot about the city that people are invested in their businesses and they want the best for their customers.

So thank you to all of the business owners.

And let me just say, Council, we got to step our game up because they made us look bad.

They had a whole spread, and I mean a whole spread, and they were serving and uh Chris McNeese, he was walking around talking to us, Chris.

Why are you not over there serving the food?

He said, I gotta entertain about Michelle.

So on the 23rd of December, which is um next Tuesday, the food bank uh of Alabama and the Northwoods Committee will come together and have a food drive in the Northwoods public housing community.

It would be a drive-up food drive.

You just drive up and they'll put the box in your car.

So I want to thank them.

I want to thank the staff of the City of Huntsville for the exceptional job they have done this year.

It's a lot of things moving and going on in Huntsville, and the staff works extremely hard.

So to everyone that works for the City of Huntsville, thank you for your dedication.

Sincerely appreciate it, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and to the City of Huntsville, the citizens have a Merry Christmas, and just think about all the blessings that we do have.

We're not a perfect city, but we are striving to do our best.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Watkins.

Mr.

Clean.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, first of all, on a solemn note, I would like to recognize the passing of BJ Robinson.

Uh BJ was very much involved in Bailey Patton Estates on the Homeowners Association as well as on the community watch group.

Uh she was a big, big Alabama football fan, and she loved gardening, very personable person, and uh she uh is someone who will be greatly missed.

And uh I'm sorry about her loss.

I think her many friends and neighbors also are very sad about her passing, uh, but she was a wonderful person, and uh it was a privilege and a pleasure to have known her and to be able to call her a friend.

I'd like to congratulate you, Mayor Battle.

Uh uh congratulations on Eli Lilly.

Uh, as Barney Fife would say, that is big.

Um, as I understand it, that is about the biggest uh single industrial development project in the state of Alabama's history.

Uh you uh working with uh our staff that we had, uh numerous uh communities in Huntsville, North Alabama, Southern Tennessee, the Chamber of Commerce, all sorts of group, it was a great team effort.

Uh you were the quarterback, and uh congratulations.

I think you just won the national championship.

But it was a great project.

Also, uh wanted to congratulate or give recognition to Scott Irwin if he's still here.

There's a problem, a very significant problem to me, uh, with the uh fact that the Huntsville Summit uh had many people that were without heat over there.

And this past week is not the time to be without heating.

Uh but anyway, Mr.

Irwin got in, got involved, and uh the heating uh is back on.

Uh I know that uh there's gonna be a major renovation project that the city is participating in to make that uh development more uh friendly, user-friendly, I guess I should say, for the residents who live there, the people who live there deserve respect and a good safe place to live and uh appreciate uh what he had done in the short term to take care of that very significant problem.

Also, uh want to uh I guess just take a few minutes to kind of catch my breath.

There's been a lot of great things that have been taking place in this community.

Um Trey Riley, our esteemed city attorney is uh working and uh on uh seeing what we can do concerning cable TV boxes.

That's their nuisance, and within the district I represent as I walk around in neighborhoods, I see down broken cable boxes, and also I think other council members have probably seen them also, but he he has it in his target, and I think we're gonna be seeing great things uh concerning uh making progress on that situation in the upcoming year.

And I just want to express my appreciation.

No, this time of the year, Trey, you have things very busy.

This past week I had a chance to uh go out and participate in the shop with a hero program, which is a uh great program.

I know that numerous firefighters and police officers and Chief Giles were out in attendance at the event.

Uh it's a great event to uh take some very special young people out in a Walmart and to let them go shopping.

And uh a lot of great uh heroes were there to get those kids uh help them get off to a great start with their Christmas, and it's a lot of fun to participate with that.

Also had a chance along with uh Mayor Battle and Mr.

Meredith to uh participate in a guest role in the uh Huntsville Ballets uh performance of the nutcracker.

Uh it's a lot of fun to have a brief role to come on stage to sit, watch everyone dance around and see the great work that they do, and then to go out into the audience afterwards, sit in the audience and just watch this performance.

It's taking place in Huntsville.

It's uh it's a great thing and uh uh just a wonderful thing, especially at this time of the year.

It's a lot of fun to participate in it.

Katie Davis and Kathy Carney were real busy uh this past week with old town luminaries that were set up over in um the downtown area.

Uh this is one of the first uh winners in a while that we did not have rain, and they were able to put up the luminaries for that last Saturday, and it was very beautiful if you were able to walk or drive around downtown to see that.

But uh there were several thousands of luminaries that had been put up, a lot of volunteers from people in the neighborhoods got together to uh lay out the bags with sand and candles in them, and again it was a great event.

And one of those things that makes Huntsville a little bit uh special.

Also uh participated at uh annual gatherings for community watch and the fraternal order of police.

Monday I had my uh town meeting with uh some good input from folks and some things that uh we're getting city departments to look into to take care of.

And uh again, I appreciate the people that do come out.

And finally, uh Tensel Trail is still going on about 400 Christmas trees out in Big Spring Park, and they're gonna be going on through past Christmas through uh New Year's Eve.

So uh still plenty of time for people to get out there in between dodging the rain and the super cold weather, uh, but it's a great thing to see.

It's kind of a wonderful uh Huntsville tradition.

So go go out to Big Spring Park day or night.

Night has the uh lights, but daytime uh those trees are still very impressive to look at.

So uh that's uh a great thing that's taking place.

Again, want to kind of reiterate, I think what uh council member Watkins say.

We just hope everybody has a great Christmas and a wonderful new year, and uh I'll see you guys next year.

Thank you, Mr.

Clean.

Mr.

Little.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'd like to uh just tip my hat to the whole team that also worked on the Live Lily project.

I know that was a long uh many, many months of work, so congratulations to everybody that was working.

That's a huge uh deal for Huntsville and also the region, so very exciting.

And then I will uh like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy holidays and uh hope all your wildest dreams come true in 2026.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I too would like to uh talk about the Eli Lilly Project.

It is six billion dollar investment, and it is the biggest investment in Alabama history, and of course, it would be in District Five.

Uh so that was probably the best thing they could have done, the Lat Lily Corporation was to choose to move to District Five.

The other thing I'd like to uh to thank is Mr.

Otto with the Huntsville Ballet uh for allowing my wife and I to play the part of the grandparents.

Uh unlike my colleagues, it was my first time doing it, and I was very much in awe of the production itself and um how long we were actually on on stage.

I've seen it performed before, I but I never realized the grandparents spent that much time on stage.

Uh but it was uh they took very good care of us, even though it was our first time doing it.

Um they led us through the process uh very quickly, and uh it was a privilege, and I look forward to doing it again in the future.

You've you have outdid yourself in meeting that timeline, and I am happy to announce that um we are going to be cutting the ribbon at the Martin Road Rec Center this coming Monday, December 22nd at 10 a.m.

So all of those folks that live in that area and will be taking advantage of it, come on out.

We look forward to seeing you there, and you can get your first uh sneak peek at the new facility, which will be the site of my first town hall in 2026.

Um then finally, like my colleagues, Merry Christmas, Huntsville, and uh wish you all the happiest and most prosperous of New Year's.

And for those that don't celebrate Christmas, happy Kwanzaa, happy Hanukkah, uh happy festivist.

Uh whatever you are celebrating this time of year, have a great one.

Thank you, Matthew.

Thank you, Mr.

Meredith.

Uh we have heard a lot about housing tonight.

And uh I would call everybody's attention to an interview that our own Dennis Madson did on NPR.

The focus of the interview was how cities provide affordable housing.

They talked about Austin and how uh how incredibly expensive it has become to live in Austin.

I just spent a week in Arizona in Phoenix and Tucson, again, really, really high housing prices.

Um but they talked about how Huntsville has not done that.

The housing prices in Huntsville have risen, and that's a good thing for for property owners.

It's their largest investment, uh, but but not to the point that they are unaffordable.

And they Dennis did a really great job of explaining the the thought behind that and how forward-thinking we have been and providing enough housing stock for the people who are coming here without having the prices become inflated.

So I would suggest you Google that.

It's it's really worth listening to.

It gave me a lot of insight.

Our houses are a greatest investment.

I think Mr.

Clark made that that point really well tonight.

And that's why community development's work is so important, because they preserve those investments that people come to depend on as they age out and need to move to other housing.

They they not only protect the investment, they protect the neighborhoods.

And so abandoned buildings like we saw tonight, those bad potatoes, I like that um that analogy, uh, are important for all of us to look at and make sure that that we keep those under control.

And every single one of our districts are impacted by those.

So many thanks to um Mr.

Irwin and his team for the work that they do in helping us protect all of our investments that create this wonderful community that we call home.

Thank you to the Huntsville South Civic Association.

They rededicated a memorial on Bailey Cove, which was the site where Officer Eric Freeman was shot and killed in the line of duty many years ago.

I remember driving down Bailey Cove.

We were coming back, it was at Christmas, and we were coming back from a performance of Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Grissom when it was in the old location, and drove right by where that was happening.

That little memorial that was there had become a little neglected.

But Ginger Longineau and Vicky Guerrero with um encouragement also from Captain Ricky Stevens at the South Precinct, uh they've worked together and we get rededicated it yesterday.

And so thanks many thanks to them.

We have wonderful community volunteers who contribute their time to making great communities.

One of those organizations is South Huntsville, Maine.

One of those volunteers, Brooke Bell, who served as on the board and as a board chair, has now become the new executive director there.

Brooke has a wonderful uh background in banking and finance and and business development, and we know she is going to do great things for um for South Huntsville, Maine as well.

I I was I since I was gone all last week, I missed the nutcracker.

I missed all the big activities.

But uh and I've gone to Tinsville Trail.

Um I would suggest everybody also visit Christmas on the River at Ditto Landing.

The Christmas card lane, if you haven't seen it, is really amazing.

There's over a hundred Christmas cards there.

You can walk, you can bike, uh, you can ride um drive your cars.

There are going to be movies, there are going to be um uh fireworks this weekend.

So take a look at the schedule and find a night when you can go down there and see and spend time on the river, and the weather is supposed to be really nice this year.

It's not freezing cold like it was last year.

So it would be a great week to go visit Christmas on the river.

And finally, Merry Christmas, happy holidays to everyone in the city.

But I would especially like to wish um a safe and happy holiday to our first responders, our public works employees, uh, Huntsville Utilities employees who are always there when the rest of us are in our nice warm houses and are sleeping and are celebrating.

They are out there doing that heavy work.

So we thank them and we thank their families for making them available to us as well.

Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year to all.

Madam President?

Yes, sir.

If I could, we have talked about Tinsel Trail.

I had someone who called me, and I guess just for public edification.

Tinsel Trail, which of course is the 400 trees that we have decorated around Big Spring Park.

That is free and it is open to the public.

And everyone, come on down in between the rain and super cold weather, and again, it's going on through New Year's Eve, but it is a free event for the public.

We have a number of wonderful events just open to the public.

Again, sign of a great community works together.

We will move to 14A.

14A is a resolution authorizing expenditures for payment.

Mr.

Meredith, would you like to make that motion?

Yes, Madam President.

I move to approve expenditures for payment in the amount of $13,473,866.91 cents.

Second.

Second by Mr.

Motion by Mr.

Meredith, second by Mr.

Little.

All in favor indicate.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Does the Finance Committee have a report?

Not this time.

Not this time.

Very good.

We will wait until a new year.

14B.

14B is an ordinance approving appropriations, goods, or services for District 5 Council improvement funds.

Chair will make the motion.

Sorry.

Second.

Mr.

Meredith, would you like to share with us what you are doing here with the ma'am?

Would like $22,000 to go to the Oakwood University in order to provide funding for academic resources that will facilitate successful matriculation of students at the university.

$5,000 to go to Kids to Love Foundation to provide funding for work to bring mental health services to, among others, Williams Middle School.

I know Morris is another focus for them.

And hopefully it will expand to all of them, but I know those are there to where they want to start the programs at.

And then finally, uh $5,000 appropriation to the National Coalition of 100 black women to provide for mentoring of their mostly high school young ladies.

Good.

Any questions from Mr.

Meredith?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed, motion carries.

We have two board appointments to be voted on.

15A is a resolution to reappoint Freeman Holyfield to the Solid Waste Disposal Authority of the City of Huntsville, Fifth Director, his current seat for a four-year term to expire January 1, 2013.

Motion from Ms.

Watkins, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

15B is a resolution to appoint Sean Majors to the Burr Memorial Committee place three due to the resignation of Ahmad Brown for the remainder of a vacant three-year term to expire, October 1, 2028.

The Chair makes that motion.

Second.

Second by Mr.

Meredith.

Any questions, comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

Any opposed, the motion carries.

We have no board nominations.

Are there any nominations from the floor?

No.

We will move on then.

We have no Huntsville utilities items.

18, we have several legal department items to take care of quickly.

18A is an ordinance authorizing the vacation of utility and drainage easement for Lot 98, the willows at Sanctuary Cove Subdivision 4400, Lake Willow Boulevard.

Is there a motion to approve that?

Moved to approve.

Motion for Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

All in favor, please indicate.

Move to approve.

Motion for Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

All in favor, please indicate.

18 C is a resolution authorizing the acceptance of a.064 acre tract of land from D.R.

Horton Inc.

for a drainage easement located in the Highland Hills Phase 1 subdivision.

Motion to approve the motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

And he posed, motion carries.

18D is a resolution authorizing acceptance of a.08 acre tract of land from Corbett Huntsville Properties LLC for a stormwater drainage easement located at Solstice Apartments 5541 Promenade Point Parkway.

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

All in favor, please indicate.

That brings us to 19 unfinished business items for action.

Council members, please remember that 19D has been withdrawn by the sponsor.

19A is an ordinance annexing 1.41 acres of land lying on the south of Sutton Road and west of Woodside Drive.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Second.

Motion from Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Nunez.

Members, Thomas Nunes, Manager of Planning and Zoning Services.

This item is to request to annex a piece of property, approximately 1.41 acres lying south of Sutton Road and west of Woodside Drive.

This is an existing single family residence.

They would like to come in for city services.

Mr.

Nunez, before we move on, we have got a number of annexation items before us here.

Could you just do a quick just for the public's edification because we are getting lots of questions about annexations?

Can you just review the annexation process?

Absolutely.

So within an annexation process, a property owner first contacts our planning department petitioning to annex.

They will fill out particular paperwork in that.

If they do not meet their minimum requirements, we never see that particular paperwork.

But in a request where they meet the rental requirements, we accept the paperwork and filter it through the 24 departments within the City of Huntsville.

Through that review, each department gets an opportunity to comment if there are particular issues related to the pro to the property or it to the annexation.

If we cannot service it appropriately, those requests never come forward.

You never see those until X instance is resolved.

So through that process, our departments get an opportunity to review.

They essentially have anywhere from 14 to 21 days.

Upon that, we then get the proper appropriate paperwork from the with a petition from the property owner.

There are other supporting documents that come forward with that.

We at that point, that is when they are introduced to our city council, and then you all take action.

So with 19A and the succeeding annexations, this is not the city going out and annexing the property.

It is requested by the property owner, and then it has to be approved through all the departments and meet very rigorous guidelines, including a contribution to the city as a whole.

That is correct.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Comments or questions about this particular annexation.

Mr.

Clinton.

No one is annexed into the City of Huntsville against the will.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

The city in Huntsville does not annex land without the petitioner asking us first.

This 1.41 acres of land, the petitioner has asked for approval.

Any other comments, questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any posed motion carries.

19B is an ordinance annexing 36.54 acres of land lying on the south side of Martin Road and east of electronics boulevard.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

As stated, this item is located south side of Martin Road and east of Electronics Boulevard.

The petitioner is seeking to annex for proposed residential development.

Can you kind of tell us whether this is west again?

So this is located south of Martin Road, just east of Wall Triana, and uh ZERT is just to the far east as well.

Any other comments?

Walt Triana is to the west and east is uh Waltrana, so Lake Forest is right here, the development you see there.

Thank you.

Comments, questions?

Old Jim Rillions Road and our new Dallas Fanny walking trail.

Okay.

I think we got it.

All in favor, please indicate.

19C is an ordinance annexing 686.46 acres of land lying on the north of Little Cove Road, east of the east and west of Highway 72 East.

Property owners are waiting.

Is there a motion to my apologies?

Motion for Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Property owners petitioned to annex 686.46 acres located north of Little Cove Road and east and west of Highway 72 East.

This project this proposal is one approximately 100 acres, 50 to 100 acres that will remain in its natural state as it is all in the floodway.

There are no housing proposals on this development.

Petitioner is seeking to zone the property commercial along 72 east and also commercial industrial park and industrial park.

Questions, comments?

So this is one of those projects where we we need to demonstrate a good use, a good reason for bringing these acres into 686 some acres into the city.

Why is it important for us to do that to have this land come in, such a large piece of land come in on the east side of 72?

On this in this particular case, is as the western or the eastern portion of our county continues to grow, we want to make sure that we provide uh services to these areas.

Uh as petitioners come forward, they come through all the departments to review and ask questions about what the intent and what the uh the overall goal is.

Uh this site in itself would be similar to what we just accomplished with Eli Lilly, that uh sitting with our city for the next the next five to ten or twenty years, the appropriate project we get the opportunity to control how it's done.

Uh is this is such a project were to come in into the county, there's no level of control.

The regulations are completely different.

Uh we have more abundant and resilient regulations uh or more intense regulations than the standards that are established by the state.

So in that case, uh we get the opportunity to make sure that uh the development is appropriate and make sure that it does the something come comes along that we don't necessarily serve the compute community in an appropriate manner.

Madam President, um as industry comes and looks at sites.

Um, Eli Lilly will have some uh following industries that will come as suppliers to them.

Uh we need to have sites that we can show them that that work.

And quite frankly, this is a great area because it's in the northern um labor shed.

Uh that labor shed has a lot of capacity out there, all the way going towards Sand Mountain.

Uh and that's a capac that's a a labor shed that we have not um you know worked our way all the way through.

We've pretty much done all we can do in the Greenbrier area.

Uh so this opens up another section of the city.

No, no, we can do more in greenhouse.

Okay.

You don't get all the goodies, Mr.

Meredith.

I that's a really important point.

So now you could open up to Jackson County, to Calp County, all along that way to and provide employment for those rural communities, um, which which again increases quality of life for all of us.

Any other comments?

Ms.

Watkins.

Okay, to reiterate, this is industrial and commercial only, right?

That is correct.

So no houses be built.

That is correct.

No students will be affected in the county that will be annexed to go to city schools, correct?

That is correct.

There is asking because I got an email and want to reassure that individual.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

You are very welcome.

But it will also help our schools because we're expanding the tax base there again, a lot of that commercial property, um, and that will help our schools.

Absolutely.

Yes, Mr.

Clint.

I don't want to bear too far off, but uh Mr.

Davis had told me we were talking about E.

I Lilly and everything.

Uh I think after the dust settles and everything, we are talking about over 10 million dollars a year of additional revenue property tax rate for the city school system.

Thank you for thank you for that point for reminding us.

We hope to see the same impact um from this as well.

Um other comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

I'll pose motion carries.

And 19 D has been uh deleted.

We would bring now come to new business.

These items will be approved in one motion unless any council member wishes to remove any item for separate discussion.

Uh are there any items any council member wishes to hold?

No.

I would like to hold oh Ms.

Watkins.

F H and K.

H.

F H N K.

And I wanted to hold K as well, just for for public um discussion.

So let me indicate that.

F.

Any others?

Oh, one second.

Can you go ahead and add G as well?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

F H.

F G H K.

Chair moves for consolidation and approval of items 20A to 20E, 20J.

West.

I'm sorry.

20I, 20I, 20J.

I'm trying to do this without my glasses.

20L to 20O.

Is there a second?

Second.

Uh all in favor, please indicate.

All right.

We will then go to 20 F.

20F is a resolution authorizing the City of Huntsville to commit home investment partnership program funds to Parkside Cottages LLC to construct 30 affordable rental housing units for families contingent upon receipt of an allocation of low-income housing tax credits from the Alabama Housing Finance Authority.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Yes, Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Council members.

Um item uh F is related to a new affordable housing project within North Huntsville.

So in the fall of this year, we did request proposal for local partners where we can leverage home funds to maximize tax credits so we can develop additional rental housing within North Huntsville.

This project is 30 units.

There are two and three bedroom units, is approximately $13 million investment within the neighborhood.

This is with a local nonprofit developer neighborhood concepts, and again, it will serve working families with two and three bedroom units.

Questions or comments from Mr.

Owen?

Have a comment.

So this is the beginning of more affordable housing in the City of Huntsville.

So that's good news.

I met with Ms.

I want to call her Mary.

Sonny Mary.

Uh-huh.

Mary Owen Jim.

Yes, Mary Allen.

I met with her several times along with some community members.

She answered all our questions, reassured us that this would be affordable housing for families.

So I'm excited about this to happen in North Huntsville and want to see more of this done throughout the city to ensure that we're not pushing out any of our people who have been here for years.

You know, the Huntsvilleans who were here before anything was built.

So it is important for us to remember this when it comes to affordable housing.

So thank you, Scott, for always working hard.

You are always so patient and kind when I call and ask questions.

And I know sometimes I call you all the time, but I appreciate you being so courteous.

Thank you, Ms.

Watkins.

And as you said, we try to bring to you as often as possible new opportunities to expand our affordable housing stock within Huntsville, and this is one more, and we will continue to do that.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate?

Motion carries.

20 G is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute modification number two to the agreement between the City of Huntsville, Alabama, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Alabama Inc.

for the use of community development block grant funds.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Councilmember.

Earlier this year, you approved an allocation of $200,000 to the Boys and Girls Club in North Alabama.

They had a need of replacement of a roof of their Abbey and Center location.

Again, the amount was $200,000.

The work is almost complete, but not final.

So we need about an additional 90 days to wrap that project up so it will be complete and we can close it out.

Any questions?

All in favor, please indicate any opposed motion carries.

20H.

Is the resolution authorizing May to execute change order number two to the agreement between the City of Huntsville, Alabama and Wiregrass Construction Company Inc.

for the Huntsville Northern Bypass, City of Huntsville Project No.

65-10-RD 08 and LDOR project number C RSA, STPHV, PE 10917.

Motion from Ms.

Watkins, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Davis.

Good evening, Councilmember Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development.

So as the resolution is requesting change order number two to our Northern Bypass project, that total contract change order amount would be $632,0193.95.

The reason for the change order is nothing is going wrong with the project.

But as we get into these large highway projects, one of the things that we come back mid-construction is Huntsville Utility starts to design the actual street lights and some intersections.

So this will pay for the street light installation for the road project, some additional water lines that are needed, both to support the new North Huntsville Tank Center, and also some pending residential development on the north side of the Northern Bypass.

So really we are just adding scope to the project.

It's not anything that was left out of the design.

We are just getting to the point of really getting ready to open this road as we get into the spring of next year.

Questions, comments?

Is there a ballpark estimate when cars will actually be driving on it completed?

Yeah.

So right now we are shooting for the May timeline.

If you if you are up in that area, you will start to see they have most of the curb and gutter installed, several uh portions of lifts of asphalt.

And actually, we are starting to transition.

We opened the intersection early.

That was early completion by contract to get the food city open and allows to advance uh the announcement of the target in the Home Depot.

Um there was um a little bit of shift change into a single lane.

We are about to open up the full two lanes at that intersection and get traffic further west towards Pulaski Pike.

So things are now starting to advance the heavy construction, the utilities, the storm drain, all that is in place.

So it's really really if you haven't been up there lately, you can really start to see what this finished product is going to look like.

So we're getting close to the home stretch.

Any other questions or comments?

All in favor, please indicate any opposed.

Motion carries.

20K is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a memorandum of understanding between the City of Huntsville and Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, U.S.

Department of Justice, United States Marshals Service.

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Hamilton, can you give us a little bit of explanation here of what we are doing?

Public has asked about it, and I think it is it's a good opportunity to explain that.

Good evening, Councilmember.

Sean Hamilton, City Administrator.

What is before you uh tonight is uh the annual renewal on our agreement with the Marshall Service specifically for the fugitive task force.

What the agreement uh provides is uh funding that uh that that agency uh has available to reimburse us for overtime if our officers uh are needed to uh participate in the operations and and use overtime so we get reimbursed for that.

So it is primarily a financial agreement in terms of what you are approving tonight.

But what the uh but really you know what the question is really about is what you know what is the what is the fugitive task force do?

And it is specifically when we when there are fugitives from justice.

Oftentimes what you are dealing with here in Huntsville is somebody who has fled from another community where they have committed some violent crime.

Obviously, people who might commit a violent crime here might also flee to those other communities.

And so uh when they start crossing state boundaries when they uh you know have have done things that uh get the attention of Federal law enforcement, and you specifically U.S.

Marshall Service is charged with uh with the mission of going in and uh collecting fugitives, and they use local and state uh partners to assist in that process.

So uh specifically it's bringing uh people who are fugitives from justice back to to face justice.

Questions, Mr.

Meredith?

Yes, ma'am.

Um Colonel uh how often do we participate and on average, if you will, how much are they reimbursing this for overtime?

You know I don't have those specific statistics here, but I would be happy to get those for you.

It's uh you know, sometimes I'll just see updates where we've uh done operations.

And it's not really often, but there's probably some that I'm not made aware of, but I'll give you those specific statistics.

But it is not a huge number.

It is not a huge number.

I mean the maximum reimbursement is 30,000.

Uh my guess is we have not hit that number.

You know, so that's not a good thing.

In most years.

Right.

But it I would I would say probably so.

Uh we have been in in this uh uh this task force now for probably 20 plus years, and so there will be some good historical data, and I'll get that for you.

Thank you, sir.

One of the things also, Council, I want to make note of.

You know, we uh I guess about two or three meetings ago, it got up and just kind of laid out uh just in summary the seven uh agreements that uh Huntsville Police Department is involved in with other agencies, some federal, some state and local.

This is one of those seven, so this is not new.

This is a renewal is one of those seven that we talked about previously.

But one of the things that we discussed, and I just I guess about a week or so ago, met with a group of citizens uh that have particular interest in these types of agreements.

And one of the things that we talked about and agreed is you know, it's it's easy if you're you know, if you are leadership in HPD or a council member who sees these pretty routinely, you kind of look at it, you know what it is, but uh not all of them necessarily stand alone.

If you are a citizen just pulling it up and reading it.

And so uh we fully acknowledge that.

One of the things uh if you go back and compare to ones you have seen in the past, we actually have added additional language to this resolution uh that we think will help better clarify and help the document stand alone a little bit better.

We will continue to do that as we all all seven of those that uh that you saw have to go through uh periodic renewals, and so as we bring those, we will continue to to start adding that additional language.

And so you saw a couple of where as is added to this uh resolution is kind of helped clarify a little bit.

You will see the same thing in other ones that we bring you here in the new future.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please.

Oh, I'm sorry, Ms.

Wilkins.

So to be clear, this has nothing to do with ice.

Correct.

Okay.

I want to just make sure that we're being clear this has nothing to do with ice.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Anyone else?

All in favor, please indicate.

All right.

That brings us to paragraph 21, new business items for introduction.

As uh we announced at the beginning, um, the administration has asked for can introduction and consideration of items 21 D and E.

What we'll do just to make this flow a little bit easier.

We will read through all uh the items for introduction, and then we will come back for considerations of D and E.

21A is introduction of an ordinance declaring certain equipment surplus and to be sold at public auction.

Again, there we have just for the public's benefit.

There will be no motion, uh no action taken on these.

These are just for introduction and will be considered at the January 8th meeting in 2026.

21B is introduction of an ordinance declaring a certain railroad car to be hauled away and disposed of.

21C is introduction of an ordinance declaring a certain railroad car to be donated to the Scottsboro Boys Museum.

21D is introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 3, Article 2, subsection C of Section 3-27, Arts and Entertainment, District Ordinance of the City's Code of Ordinances to modify the Quigley Arts and Entertainment District.

Um 21E is introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 3, Article 2, subsection C of Section 3-28 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Huntsville, Alabama, to amend the Providence Arts and Entertainment District.

21E is introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 3, Article 2, Subsection C of Section 3-28 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Huntsville, Alabama, to amend the Providence Arts and Entertainment District 21F is an introduction of an ordinance to declare property as surplus and authorizing the mayor to enter into purchase and sale agreement between the City of Huntsville and Hankholdings LLC for conveyance of the same.

The Administration has asked for consider the now all items have been properly introduced.

The administration has asked for consideration of items D and E at this meeting.

Before we vote on those, could we have a statement from the Administration regarding the urgency of considering these items at this meeting?

Why do we need to do these now as opposed to wait to the January 8th meeting?

Thank you.

Thomas Nina is the manager of planning and zoning services.

So this is uh two requests to add additional land to the Quigley Arts and Entertainment District.

One is in a new business brick and ten that recently opened his doors this past week.

Hang on, Mr.

Nunes again, I don't want to enter so rather than going to those, because we don't have a motion on those yet.

What why is it important to consider these items at this meeting?

Uh the consideration is one not only for the business but for our our residents of Huntsville that can participate in these new businesses and in the arts and entertainment district.

As we know that we are going to have warmer weather and approaching the Christmas season, it would be nice to have and consider.

Again, completely up to you if you decide to add these.

They can wait until the uh additional year.

Uh but as we know during the Christmas holidays, a lot of people are out and about and partaking in these establishments.

So we want to help them.

The timeliness on these items is that approval now permits them to participate in the holiday season.

That is correct.

Yes, New Year's particularly.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you.

We will now consider uh ask for consideration of the items at this meeting.

So I will read them again.

21 D.

I will make the motion for consideration of item 21D at this council meeting.

Chair makes the motion.

Second.

Second from Mr.

Little.

You are asking for UC, right?

I mean, you're not using the first time.

I am asking for consideration, I am asking for for consideration of the item at this meeting.

It will require the unanimous consent of all council members.

So we will uh do a roll call vote.

Ms.

Watkins, how do you vote regarding consideration of item 21 D at this council meeting?

Yes.

Ms.

Watkins votes aye.

Mr.

Little?

Aye.

Mr.

Kling?

Mr.

Meredith.

No.

Nay.

And the Chair votes aye.

We do not have the unanimous consent of the Council to consider item 21D.

So that item will then be moved to the January 8th agenda, and we will consider it at that time.

21E.

The Chair moves for consideration of item 21E at this meeting.

Second from Mr.

Little.

Ms.

Watkins, how do you vote?

Aye.

Mr.

Little, how do you vote?

Aye.

Mr.

Kling, how do you vote?

Aye.

Mr.

Meredith, how do you vote?

Nay.

And the Chair votes aye.

We do not have unanimous consent for consideration of 21E.

It will be considered as unfinished business at the January 8th meeting.

That concludes all the items on the agenda and brings us now to the second roster communications.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on matters relating to city business, whether or not such items are on the agenda.

When called, please approach the microphone and state your name, home address, and city of residence for the record.

We will also call the name of the next person signed up so that they can prepare to come up and we can move the process along.

Each speaker may address the council for three minutes.

While this is not an appropriate time to engage in dialogue with council members or city staff, council members may direct the administration to research answers to questions and address concerns at future meetings.

The sign-up should also provide an opportunity to provide phone numbers and email addresses, so follow up may be made by council members or administration if they desire.

Finally, please remain from refrain from making comments regarding the good name and character of any individual.

The first person to sign up is Mr.

Will Ellis, and he will be followed by Mr.

Russ Dunford.

Would Mr.

Ellis please come to the microphone.

That is Will Ennis.

Ennis, thank you.

Huntsville, um forty-three, Oldwood Road 35811.

Thank you, Mr.

Annis.

I'm here today to relate an encounter I had with a Huntsville police officer during the uh Veterans Day parade.

I approached this young officer and asked, because as a veteran, it was important to me in my constitutional oath.

So I approached the officer and said, is this part of your oath?

And his response floored me.

He said, I don't know.

I don't remember.

Now, this was a young officer.

Probably couldn't have been on the floors for more than five or ten years, and he doesn't remember.

I remember as a veteran, I raised my hand over fifty years ago, and I remember my oath.

I guess maybe getting the badge was more important.

I didn't challenge him at the time because I didn't know.

But I looked it up, and yes, this city and this county have in that first line of those officers' oaths.

I swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The same Constitution applies to every single authority in this country.

From the officers on the street to the President of the United States.

And we, those of us who have sworn that oath must keep it.

And there are not just local law enforcement on our streets anymore.

There are Federal officers on our streets walking these streets.

And we need to be the keepers of the constitutionality of our actions and theirs within this city.

So I must recommend that local state agencies determine beforehand their actions to be taken with these Federal officers.

To say these are the actions that we will accept.

These are the ones that we will not.

This is a line that we will not cross.

And this is a line that we will not support.

We need to do that as the people in this city that have the authority to know what's right and to do it.

As I stated, those of us who took the oath must keep it.

We need to remember that and hold ourselves to that, and everyone else who also did the same.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Russ Dunford.

Mr.

Dunford.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

So everybody loves a good show until everybody has copies of it.

My name is Russ Dunford, 211 Taylor Road, Owens Crossroads.

We'll start with chart one here.

The first thing is uh appreciate the recent pavement projects, Bob Wallace in uh California.

And uh Highway 431, the drainage issue we discussed earlier.

I think we have that mitigated, so I appreciate the support on that.

Uh the biggest thing here I'm showing in the picture and uh chart number two.

This is we uh uh Taylor Road, Taylor Lane right there behind of Walmart.

If you look to the left and uh chart number two, lower left-hand corner, that's a new daycare being built.

And you notice at Walmart, the uh Taylor Lane, the four four-lane goes around behind it.

The two-lane intersects there.

If you turn to page two, in 1999, the traffic count per day was 900.

Uh today it is 13,000 cars.

Uh if you look at the chart number three, you'll see the intersection.

This is how this goes down.

And I did not stage this, though I only wished I would, but I will be buying lottery tickets.

The car pulls up, they're looking left, they're looking right, they want to go, and they go wait for it.

We're waiting at chart number five.

You'll see all looks clear to the left where it says oncoming traffic, you can't see.

Usually the person gets impatient, and what do they do?

Let's go for it.

I think I can make it.

I know because I hear the horns every day there.

I've been down there uh working for five plus years, and every day there's horns and accidents.

If you turn to chart number seven, what eventually happens is this car pulled out approximately 20 feet to the left, 40 feet to the right.

Uh if you look across there, you see what looks like a lot of plywood.

That is a new daycare going in.

My concern is as people come in chart number seven from the right, and around that turn, the ingress and egress to that daycare is going the peak times of parents going in and out of that.

It's going to be the peak times when people were ready to go home, and I can see traffic accidents increasing.

We've not had anyone killed at this at this location, but if you look at chart number eight, no, these are not photos.

These are just pulled in from uh AI because it's really cool to show you.

But I've been there for at least nine accidents and pulled people out of cars myself.

What you see in front of you here, believe it or not, last night we had another accident, and this is some of the uh pieces and parts that were left there.

So uh Mr.

David Little said he had sent this over to the traffic division, I think it is to take a look at it.

Um, certain smart folks looked at before that day cure went in.

And the only thing I can ask is I think we can mitigate some serious accidents from occurring if we would give serious consideration to a traffic light.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Dunford.

Um Mr.

Little, I assume you are going to be following up on that with Mr.

Nene.

All right.

David Snyder is our next person, and following Mr.

Snyder will be Sarah Colletti.

Hello, my name is David Snyder.

Uh my information is written correctly on the sheet.

I live in Huntsville.

Um I'd like to start out with a little bit of accountability to an extent.

I believe I may have been wrong about Resolution 23-384, I believe.

I don't have it in front of me, but the memorandum memorandum of understanding with ICE and Huntsville City and uh HSI is not necessarily a part of 287G.

Um but we're going to get to that in a moment.

Uh not long ago, a friend of mine had her son pulled over and harassed by a member of HPD for displaying a flag of the Philippines, a totally unacceptable behavior from our police department.

I am hoping they take my offer to help or by themselves file a complaint against that officer.

Just last night, I walked out of my work office and witnessed a truck speeding away after having pepper sprayed a Latina woman in the parking lot of where I work.

They had pulled over out from a Walmart.

She had her daughter in the car.

I called 911 and after confirming that uh this that that is what this woman wanted, or I confirmed and then called 911.

Um, you know, I do believe that the police officer that showed up and the medical personnel that arrived were good and decent people that mean well in our city.

I want people to understand that a critical analysis of policing in America is not necessarily a condemnation of every police officer.

It is in all our best interests to remove slavery as a punishment of a crime and reinvent our methods of upholding the law and shift our society to one that upholds human rights.

But I made sure to ask that person if they were okay with a call to 911 precisely because we do not live in a society that values human rights.

ICE has been terrorizing communities burning across in the yards of black and brown people across all of America.

Recently I had a meeting with our City Administrator, John Hamilton, alongside representatives with Indivisible and 5051.

John said that uh the form 73-002 uh with the aforementioned resolution was about child trafficking, something that was not mentioned in that document at all.

Now, ICE has been zip tying children naked in the street, leaving children in cars in freezing conditions after abducting their parents and abducting children from hospitals.

Claiming a partnership with them is to protect children is ridiculous.

I filed a new records request to get to the bottom of what is going on with this memor uh memorandum.

Sorry, uh to the records department.

It is the third attempt that I made.

Um my fear is that this type of connection with ICE and its H uh HSI division is that while it seems benign, supposedly for the purpose of investigating child trafficking, the city is handing over wholesale our city surveillance measures.

Imagine if we uh uh had passed the recent city detect program, right?

And for the purpose of an investigating child trafficking, ICE were to say we need all of the footage that all of those vehicles have been taking of every house in this city.

Right?

That is uh completely unacceptable.

What if you know the possibility of uh uh you know flock surveillance uh you know programs and other such surveillance programs?

Um this if this uh contract, if this memorandum uh is still active and uh that form, and there are other forms, the uh 73-001 forms that have been signed, and if they are currently active, they must be terminated, something that is absolutely possible within the clause of that memorandum of understanding.

It's a 30-day notice, it must be terminated.

Um, Mr.

Snyder.

I think you heard Mr.

Hamilton say they are going to be starting to change the language in some of those memorandums to make it more transparent about what the uh the purpose of them is.

So that resulted from your meeting, expressing those concerns.

So thank you.

Um Ms.

Colletti will be our next speaker, and following Ms.

Colletti, we will hear from Taylor Miller.

Ms.

Colletti.

My name is Sarah Colletti.

My address is listed correctly on the sheet.

I am a resident of Hartzall, Alabama.

And um thank you.

I am not trying to engage anyone in a dialogue, so please don't censor me again.

But I did want to kind of respond to what um that gentleman said earlier in response to our questions about that subdivision.

And uh that is that if you would like to increase ridership on public transit, the best way to do it is to make it more accessible.

And that needs to happen by increasing the length of time that it runs.

Because this city does not stop running at 9 o'clock every night.

We have I mean, you want to thank our first responders.

Think about all the people working at the hospital three o'clock, you know.

Needing to get lunch on their break.

They can't.

Like if they might be able to walk somewhere, they might be able to door dash, but they're not making bank.

They don't have the kind of money to order DoorDash every night, and they can't ride the bus to go buy something.

Um we need this city to be more accessible if you want to increase ridership.

Um I do think um it was interesting that y'all mentioned how many of the government representatives there were at that Space Force thing, considering how few jobs it's actually going to bring to this area.

Uh considering the difficulty that you know us as normal people who don't make six figures have getting a hold of them.

Um, I know that you like to brag about all the jobs that are coming, but it was pointed out that a lot of the construction jobs are going to be filled by existing construction jobs.

You're going to be hiring temp services.

So you're not adding jobs, you're just adding job sites to existing workers.

And um as far as the actual jobs that'll be added once it's open and constructed, those are all going to be for folks with a conscience where their engineering degree should be.

Um I was really disturbed to hear uh food bragged about when uh the food bank was talked about after.

Um that was disturbing, uh, especially considering the source.

Um also about those cable boxes.

If the city would like to eliminate dangerous cable boxes, a better way to do it than attaching cameras to garbage trucks to surveil us might be to put that same effort into uh a little stricter corporate oversight, you know, like we're paying power bills for Amazon, we're getting surveilled, nobody's surveilling Comcast or whoever else is doing these dangerous cable boxes.

Um thank you very much, Ms.

Colletti.

We appreciate your input.

And then finally, our last speaker is Taylor Miller.

I'm uh Taylor Miller.

I live at 1100 Enterprise Way Northwest.

Um 18104, 35806.

I'm over in District 5.

I uh sent an email to everyone.

Um yeah, I sent an email to everyone last week sometime.

It was late at night and I've been like thinking about this for a while now.

But um the short of it is I would love for the city of Huntsville to maybe uh think more carefully about the annexations that it's doing.

Um and there are a number of reasons that I don't like this.

Um but the the the sort of the I think the thing that like everyone in the city can kind of get behind is that traffic in Huntsville is a massive issue.

Uh just yesterday I was driving back from Madison around uh 4 30 p.m.

and traffic along 565 and the off-road was literally stopped down going out of Huntsville into Madison and I guess the uh other part of District 5.

Um I think that the sort of the root cause of the a lot of people online complain about traffic and they complain that the city is growing too fast.

But I think the real issue is that the city, it's not the number of people in the city, it's where these people are being placed.

Uh so you have people being put into like these new subdivisions like the Winstor, the the one they were talking about earlier today.

Um and each of these places that you shove onto the outskirts of the city increases the number of drivers by in times however many uh developments you have.

And so each one of those drivers is going to be taking up a new spot, filling up the the roadways into and out of the city.

And so like every one of them multiplies your traffic problem, multiplies your number of accidents by however many factors of of whatever.

I don't know the exact numbers.

But these are these are serious issues that the city is going to have to face soon sooner rather than later.

Because the longer you wait, the the more you risk becoming a city kind of like Atlanta or LA, except unlike Atlanta in LA, Huntsville doesn't have the interesting like cultural uh landmarks that really bring people to those areas.

Except unlike Atlanta in LA, Huntsville doesn't have the interesting like cultural uh landmarks that really bring people to those areas.

So like you're going to have people like me and people like uh people who are other young successful professionals who will stay here for a job for as long as that job is there, and then they will leave because the traffic is bad.

Thank you for joining us, sir.

All right.

Move to adjourn.

And Merry Christmas to all, and we will see you in the new year.