The Mobile City Planning Commission convened on August 21, 2025, for its regularly scheduled meeting. Chairman Jay Stubbs led the commission through a lengthy agenda comprising subdivisions, major modifications, rezoning requests, a sidewalk waiver, and administrative updates. Multiple commissioners recused themselves from specific items where they had potential conflicts of interest.
Item 5 (Sidewalk Waiver, St. Paul's Episcopal School): Sean Estis, representing the school, read a statement from Alex Lott, the school's Director of Safety and Security. Lott expressed strong opposition to building the requested sidewalks, citing safety concerns for young students, poor visibility from a curve and power poles, and the difficulty of managing two pedestrian traffic flows.
Item 8 (Rezoning, 250 St. Francis Street): Jeremy Milling (Milling Commercial Realty) spoke in favor of the hotel development but strongly urged the applicant to ensure the final design fits the aesthetic fabric of Downtown Mobile. David Clark (President & CEO of Visit Mobile) spoke in favor, detailing positive tourism metrics and the need for more downtown hotel rooms to capture future demand from new developments like the airport, arena, and cruise ship expansion.
Item 10 (Subdivision & Modification, McGregor Avenue): Dr. Dan Remer (Spring Hill Cemetery Neighborhood Association) stated the neighborhood is not opposing the subdivision itself but will closely monitor and "prevent any attempt" to rezone the property away from its current R1 zoning, citing traffic concerns from nearby schools. William Rogers requested that any future development commemorate the historic Sandtown neighborhood.
Item 11 (Subdivision & Rezone, Old Shell Road/Item Avenue): Cindy Atoris Wagner expressed concerns about how the rezoning might impact property values and neighborhood character, asking what restrictions would apply to future businesses. The applicant clarified it was a zoning cleanup with no immediate plans for change.
Good afternoon. Welcome to the Mobile City Planning Commission meeting for August 21st, 2025. Like to take a moment to review our general operating procedures. This meeting will be divided into two sessions, the public hearing session and the deliberation session. In the public hearing, an agenda item is called. A reminder that only four people can speak for an agenda item and four people against. Each speaker is limited to five minutes, subject to questions by the commission. At one minute, a speaker will hear a warning bell or a beep asking you to please summarize your comments. And if there is opposition, we will have an applicant uh allowed a two-minute rebuttal period to answer any questions. If you do intend to speak, come to the podium at the bottom of the stairs, speaking of the microphone and provide your name and address for our records. And please direct all your comments to the commission only and not the applicant, the staff, or the audience. After hearing all applications, the commission will go into deliberation where we will discuss each application with input from the staff as necessary, but with no input from the audience. Commissioners then vote on each application, and the results of that voting can be learned from the planning department. If issues arise during deliberation that were not addressed in the public hearing, we have the discretion to allow additional comments pertaining to those issues in order to resolve them, or we can call for the application to be held over for a later meeting. Occasionally we may have a recusal from one of our commissioners from discussing and voting on a given application. That does not mean they are directly involved with the application or the applicant, but depending on the circumstances, ethical rules require the refusal, even if there is only the slightest appearance of conflict of interest. The planning commission makes final decision on subdivisions with the PLs of those decisions to the circuit court. Myself, Jay Stubbs present, Mr. Kirk Matte. Mr. Harry Brislin, Mr. Larry Dorsey here, Mr. Chad Anderson, Mr. Matt Anderson, Mr. Nick Amberger. Here, Mr. Josh Woods. Mr. Kenny Nichols. Properly moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. I great. We will move into number one on the agenda. This is a holdover from a previous meeting. This is at 2316 Hillwood Drive West. Conditional use permit approval to allow the short-term rental in an R1 single-family residential suburban district. Brewster um I was not I'll ask staff I was not privileged to know what would the the reason for the holdover was from the previous meeting if you wouldn't mind filling me in so the holdover was um required for them to revise the site plan to depict the location of all garbage cans um or any other uh bins that they were going to use for waste removal they also provide proof that the garbage or waste containers were screened from view via photographs and revise the site plan to illustrate the required off street parking spaces we did receive all of uh those requests and if you look under your holdover considerations um there is the uh considerations for approval all right mr brewster are you familiar with those considerations and in agreement with them if this this goes to approval yes okay the answer is yes from the applicant any questions or comments from commissioners is there anyone in the audience who is here to speak for or against or have questions pertaining to agenda item number one at 2316 Hillwood drive west all right seeing none we will move on thank you Mr. Brewster it is Brewster correct all right thank you sir all right these are new items on the agenda starting with number two this is a subdivision at 7435 and 7495 Bowers Lane inclusive of 7410 old military road this is a subdivision of two lots at just under two and a half acres is the applicant present the applicant is present by raising the hand are you sir in agreement with the nine listed conditions from this application from the city staff the applicant is in agreement with those nine listed conditions is there anyone else here in the audience that is here to speak for or against or have questions pertaining to this application at Bowers Lane and old military road any questions or comments from commissioners regarding this application all right seeing none we'll move on thank you sir number three this is a subdivision application at 710 downtown or boulevard a subdivision of two lots at three quarters of an acre uh should be noted here uh for mr bird that it is a uh a potential denial based on the following are the two items listed I'm sure you will have questions or address those go ahead sir right um yes staff report staff report um name and address for the record oh excuse me jury bird bird surviving 2609 alls mill road mobile the um staff report lean toward denial for two reasons I think one of which I have corrected with a plating like that which has expanded the building area in the rear that's back here to be 7200 square feet and then the the flag pole is in excess of that making a total of 11,064 square feet that's one another mention is that flag lots are not common in the area you have a copy of this is our proposed site at this end of the block and there is a flag lot at the other end airport boulevard being here and coming out on downtown loop north at the at the rear of that lot uh but I would based on that I would like you to consider approval of the subdivision I had staff had an opportunity to review the material presented by Mr. Byrd yes sir and if you would look in your folder under item number three uh staff did prepare conditions of approval should the planning commission choose to approve the request this considerations folder that that's what you're doing yes sir I just had another scene yeah I don't do anything all right Mr. Byrd have you had a chance to review the 10 listed considerations was it in a staff report no I can quit I can quickly go to you want to listen all of a I'll give a quick run over of them retention number one retention of the right of way along downtown or boulevard number two revision of the plat to correctly label downtown or boulevard number three retention of the 50 foot minimum building setback along downtown or boulevard for lot A number four retention of the 25 minimum building setback line on lot B as blocked at the west terminus of the poll number five retention of the lot size labels and both square feet and acres on the final plat or the furnishing of a table on the final plat. Number four, retention of the 25 minimum building setback line on lot B as blocked at the west terminus of the pole. Number five, retention of the lot size labels and both square feet and acres on the final plat or the furnishing of a table on the final plat. Six placement of a note on the plating no instructors are allowed to encroach into an easement without permission of the easement holder. Seven, compliance engineering, eight uh note on the plat for traffic nine, compliance of urban ten, compliance of fire. We're in agreement. Thank you, sir. Any questions or comments from commissioners on agenda item number three that has from according to staff been satisfied for consideration? Yes, Mr. Chairman.