1920 Huntington Road Zoning

A Message from the CEO of Premium Property Trust

Recently, a city council member informed me that there was some concern raised about the notice of zoning changes at 1920 Huntington Road and 1932 Huntington Road. I want to both address those concerns and provide an opportunity for you to share any additional concerns of your own. First, let me provide a little background:

We have owned 1920 Huntington Road since purchasing it in February 2020. It has always been used as a premier boutique medical office. Originally with Dr. Corey Hartman with Skin Wellness, then - briefly - for a laser eye surgery center, and now with Dr. Blake Raggio, a leading plastic surgeon. This property is shown in green above and includes lots 14, 15, and 16.

In August 2021, we acquired 3040 Independence Drive from Christopher LLC and Lots 17 and 18 were attached to that property. That building is currently leased to Keller-Williams of Homewood. As you can see, the parking in Lots 17 and 18 is not striped and in Lot 17 it is currently gravel. We knew that in the near future an obvious improvement to the property would be to pave and stripe Lots 17 & 18.

When we went to the City of Homewood about considering this, we found that Lot 18 was still zoned R-5, a residential designation. Because that lot is not adjacent to an actual city street, it cannot be developed into a residential property.

So, we made the determination to attach that lot to the other contiguous land at 1920 Huntington and combine the zoning. You can see a portion of the current city zoning map here:

Well, there is a historic zoning anomaly that predates our ownership of the land. 1920 Huntington is currently zoned MXD (Mixed-Use). At Premium Property Trust, we are big fans of mixed-use developments that create walkable communities where people can work, live, and play. In this case, though, a single mixed-use lot surrounded by residential and commercial zones really does not make a ton of sense. It's a big outlier. If you look at the city zoning, almost all of the MXD zoning is over in SoHo.

I knew the city would prefer for it to be zoned C-2, like the properties around it, so I suggested to our team to combine Lot 18 with the other 1920 Huntington Road property and submit a zoning change to make it all C-2....which is what all the other property on that block is currently zoned (Alabama Outdoors, Stock and Trade, etc.)

That zoning designation does not provide any advantage for developing anything at 1920 Huntington, which we will highlight in a summary of the changes later on this web page. I just wanted to preface that discussion with this note to explain this is truly a perfunctory realignment of the property to clean up and unify the zoning.

If you read this, and our explanation of the changes below, and still have any concerns or questions regarding these changes, you are welcome to reach out to me at your convenience to discuss them directly.

Sincerely,

Burke Cox

CEO, Premium Property Trust

Significant Considerations:

We have requested an amendment to the zoning ordinance ("re-zoning") to rezone this property to a proposed classification of C-2.
One parcel (1920 Huntington Road) is currently zoned MXD-C and consists of Lots 14, 15, and 16.
One parcel (1932 Huntington Road or "Lot 18") is currently zoned R-5 and consists of Lots 17 and 18.
We intend to subdivide all of these lots into a single lot and parcel.
We proffer and request that the use of the property for a car wash or gasoline service station would not be allowed.
We request variance requiring the building setback at the rear of the property to be 15' to accommodate the building currently being utilized there.
There is a restriction in C-2 for non-medical offices to be limited to 5,000 SF. We request variance to accommodate this building for possible non-medical office use, even though it is approximately 5,050 SF.