Africatown safe zone remaining barrier to UDC passage

With the approval of three amendments at the Mobile City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 17, a safe zone to protect Africatown residents from encroaching industry remains the only sticking point between the city and an updated batch of zoning regulations. 

The new Unified Development Code (UDC) has been a project of Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration for more than five years. The first iteration of the new regulations was voted down by the council for lack of a supermajority, but the amended ordinance will most likely be approved, if Africatown residents and attorneys representing big industry can reach a deal on a so-called “safe zone.” 

The Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition (MEJAC) had proposed a safe zone amendment intended to designate all industry within a special Africatown overlay considered a non-conforming use. Non-conforming uses in place before the new regulations take affect are grandfathered in, but any change to the footprint could result in those uses being banned. At a committee meeting earlier this month, industry representatives and advocates for the port argued against the amendment. 

District 2 Councilman William Carroll, who represents the area, announced Tuesday the two sides were close to an agreeable solution. 

“After hours yesterday of back and forth, I think we’re close,” Carroll said during a pre-conference meeting Tuesday. 

During the meeting, Carroll said there were still concerns over areas north and east of Papermill Road not being included in the safe zone. He added that language in the original MEJAC amendment was too “far-reaching.” He put the pressure on both sides to come up with a workable solution. 

“We’re close to establishing a safe zone,” Carroll said. “In the next week or two, because people are going on vacation, we’ll have an agreement. This is the only thing holding up the UDC so if it gets to a point where you’re stalemating progress of the city, I’m going to have to make a decision.” 

Ramsey Sprague, president of MEJAC, said the safe zone amendment represents the “clear will” of most of Africatown’s residents. 

“We don’t want to destroy industry,” he said. “We want to create a table where residents and industry leaders can come together.” 

The council did unanimously approve three amendments to the UDC. One amendment, introduced by District 4 Councilman Ben Reynolds, would regulate short-term rentals such as Airbnb. The amendment would basically require all new short-term rental owners to get Planning Commission approval. Short-term rental owners who currently use their property for the purpose will be allowed to continue as a non-conforming use. They will, in effect, be grandfathered in. 

The second amendment, also sponsored by Reynolds, would require in-home daycares with seven to 12 children to be required to get planning approval. 

A third amendment, proposed by the administration relates to group homes. Approved unanimously by members of the council, group homes will be defined as a residence with more than four unrelated adults. Under current law, four unrelated adults in a home together can be considered a family. That will remain the case. 

Affordable housing

Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office is again pushing to give developers of the old Gayfer’s building downtown $8 million in American Rescue Plan funding to develop 94 affordable housing units. 

The rents at most of the units at the proposed development would be capped at between 60 percent of the area’s median income of $35,000 for a family of four, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. 

Gulf Coast Housing Partnership Inc. is the developer of the project and the ARPA funds would offset about a quarter of the $32 million cost to renovate the building across from Bienville Square at 165 Dauphin St. 

“Though we’ve made some strides in recent years, Mobile is still facing a shortage of affordable housing,” Stimpson said in a statement. “It creates challenges for businesses trying to recruit and house new employees and presents obvious hardships for residents and families. The Gayfer’s project would create affordable housing options in our downtown for decades to come while also repurposing and redeveloping a historic structure that’s currently an eyesore in one of the busiest parts of Mobile.”

The administration had previously asked the council to consider the project when ARPA money first became available. Councilors had asked instead that the mayor’s office look for other projects for which the money could be used. 

Stimpson Chief of Staff James Barber told councilors on Tuesday only four of seven developers who returned requests for proposals met the minimum qualifications. Of those four, only one was east of Interstate 65, so the Gayfer’s project came back to the council, Barber said. 

Carroll called it a “good project,” but argued that the money could be better spent on projects in the Campground or Bottom areas of his district, rather than in downtown, which is “blossoming and blooming.” 

Woods told Carroll money is available to help redevelop economically depressed areas of the Campground and the Bottom, but developers aren’t interested in investing in projects there. 

Carroll argued that the city hasn’t done enough to this point to make those areas attractive to developers and make projects that are “shovel ready.” 

The development will be the subject of an upcoming council entitlement committee meeting, chaired by District 1 Councilman Cory Penn. Carroll is in favor of delaying the vote. 

“I’ve seen this presentation and I don’t think it’s a bad project,” Carroll said. “I don’t think it’s a bad project, but it deserves community buy-in. The community deserves hearing the presentation from the developer. They deserve the chance to ask questions.” 

Some of those questions came from Teresa Bettis, of the South Alabama Economic Roundtable, who told councilors she didn’t believe the project met the federal requirements for ARPA spending because it wasn’t in an area defined as economically depressed. Instead, areas like Toulminville, Maysville and the Bottom do fit that definition. 

“Putting affordable housing in this location does not assist those who need it the most,” she said. 

Bettis argued the money could be better spent if it was used to renovate some of the public housing already in the city, like at R.V. Taylor.