Mobile City Council Meeting - August 5, 2025
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Mobile City Council Meeting – August 5, 2025
The Mobile City Council met on August 5, 2025, to conduct a public hearing on nuisance properties, consider several ordinances and resolutions, and discuss transportation issues and engineering capacity. The meeting included a public hearing on demolishing multiple structures, a presentation on wave routes, and a vote to kill an ordinance to seal a property.
Public Hearing
- The council held a public hearing to declare structures at 110 Highland Avenue, 1258 Congress Street, 265 Cuba Street, 1303 East Gulf Field Drive, 1401 Vega Drive, and 801 East I-65 Service Road as public nuisances and order their demolition. Councilman Davis inquired about 801 East I-65 Service Road (old movie theater at Bel Air Mall). Municipal Enforcement reported that the owner began demolition but paused for over a year; the roof is deteriorated, exterior walls are open, and the building is accessible to the public, including homeless individuals.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Laurie Hunter presented on the appointment of Mobile Housing Authority Board members. (No further details on her position.)
- Robert Clopton alleged that the city was cutting or eliminating wave routes that serve most transportation needs. Transportation Director Ms. Snowden responded that there are currently no plans to eliminate any wave routes, but that could be an option as the city reviews proposals from the RFP, which has already closed. She will meet with the council soon to discuss the results.
Discussion Items
- Ordinance 88042 (Seal property at 305 Dearborn Street and vacant land on Lyon Street): Councilman Garrett stated he lacked information from the administration and moved to "kill" the ordinance (vote it down). Other council members agreed, and the ordinance was voted down, with the property to remain as is until a future meeting with stakeholders can be arranged.
- CIP Resolutions:
- 21-1024: Authorized contract with Benville Construction for South Brooklyn School demolition (site of a future senior center). Councilman Days confirmed the project.
- 21-1025: Authorized contract with Harris contracting for new fire station #19.
- Several other resolutions were introduced, including funds for Cypher's Creek Golf Course, convention center projects, fire station improvements, and an easement for Alabama Power for the Africa Town Welcome Center.
- Engineering Capacity: The council discussed a resolution to use outside engineering services (Thompson Engineering) to embed an engineer in the city's office to manage approximately $113 million in projects. Councilman Reynolds and Davis commended the engineering department for taking this step to address project delays. The engineer will work on Shipyard Road, boat launch, TAP grants, and drainage projects. Councilman Davis noted that a dedicated project manager on the McGregor Road project improved progress.
Key Outcomes
- The public hearing on nuisance properties was held; the council will proceed with resolutions 1042-1047 to order demolition (no vote shown in transcript).
- Ordinance 88042 was voted down (killed) by the council.
- The council introduced several resolutions and purchase orders, including for fiber optic conduit, roll-up doors, and sign posts.
- The regular council meeting scheduled for August 26, 2025, was moved to Wednesday, August 27, 2025, due to the election.
Meeting Transcript
Public hearing today is the public hearing to declare the structures at 110 Highland Avenue 1258 Congress Street 265 Cuba Street 1303 East Gulf Field Drive 1401 Vega Drive and 801 East I-65 Service Road Public Nuisances and ordering them demolish. I'd like to Mr. President. Yeah, Mr. Davis. Mr. Dolphinbach, could you give me some information on 801 East I-65 Service Road? Is this the I thought we had is this the one at the Springdale that we've been fiddling with? Close. It's actually this one is located at Bel Air Mall. It's the old movie theater. Okay. And it at this point, municipal enforcement, several years back. We served notices violation of municipal fence tickets. They started some demolition of the building, but they paused for over a year, year and a half, almost two years now. The roof is deteriorated to the point where there's holes in the roof. The exterior walls are open. It's actually open to the public, and it's a hard bridge for um homeless to go in and out. Thank you. Presentation of petitions and other communications to the council. Laurie Hunter, the city's appointing approval of Mobile Housing Authority Board members. Robert Clopton alleged cutting slash eliminating of wave routes that serve most of the transportation needs. Thank you, Mr. President. Um Ms. Snowden, um, I see Mr. Clapton is coming down. Um do we know anything about these concerns about cutting or eliminating wave routes? Yeah, currently uh we have no plans of eliminating any uh wave routes now. Well, as we review some of these proposals from the companies that want to uh our request for proposal, that may be an option, but at this time we're not proposing any wave uh routes cuts. So nothing has been put out publicly or saying anything. So no, okay. All right, but but currently everything is running the same as it has been. Correct. Mr. President, uh Mr. Woods. Um, Mr. Snow, when um when are uh when's that window for the RFP close? Uh it has already closed, and uh I just received the uh results back from our panel, so we'll be meeting here shortly and discussing uh where we where we're gonna go from there. Perfect. Thank you. Ordinance is held over 88042, authorized to seal the property located at 305 Dearborn Street north and vacant land located on Lyon Street. Uh Mr. Garrett. You're talking about uh yeah, we're killing it. We're gonna kill it today, just vote it down. I mean, I didn't get any information from the administration, haven't talked to them about anything else, so let's just vote it down today. Complaining to the rest of the council uh about the meeting that you had attended on yesterday. Oh, we attended it on yesterday.
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