Irondale Development
On city councils being sneaky
Dear reader,
I write this to you from Fairhope, Alabama on a brief pit stop at a public beach before joining friends and colleagues at Water Rally, an annual conference of river defenders finding ways to work together to protect our beloved spaces.
Last night I was one of many who attended a committee meeting at Irondale City Hall in regard to building luxury apartments across from the Cahaba River.
The room was filled with many people standing in the back, many sporting Cahaba River shirts and baseball caps. The interim chairman nervously leaned into the microphone, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people at one of these things.”
The community responded to a post on Facebook warning the community that this meeting was taking place and the council had done little to alert the public that the Cahaba was at risk.
The committee, coincidentally, was unable to make quorum and thus conduct business. But they held a Q&A session with the public to “squash” rumors they had seen on social media. I say Q&A session but it was mostly a question and vague redirect session.
“Has the committee taken into consideration how close this development is to the Cahaba and how essential that river is to our way of life as Alabamians?”
“We are looking into their storm water permit,” was all the city engineer said.
“That area has been outlined in the comprehensive plan as recreation and protected green space,” another woman added, her white button down perfectly framed the Cahaba lily on her t-shirt, “I mean the mayor ran with this during his campaign.” Lots of murmuring and silence followed. For the most part, the questions seemed to rattle the committee.
We were basically told that this was a done deal, that they were obligated to vote yes simply because the developer most likely met the requirement despite the comprehensive plan labeling the area as something else.
“Do they have permission to cut trees?” A lady in the back spoke up, “they’re cutting down a lot of trees.”
“It’s only a couple,” a committee member said.
“Oh no,” she corrected, “it looks like they’re getting ready for a construction crew.”
The interim chairman of the committee warned us that we were welcome to attend the next meeting but that their vote would more than likely disappoint us.
Suddenly a woman on the second row spoke, a fierce mixture of frustration, sweetness and power, “Do we citizens not matter?”
Another man stood and harshly called the meeting to an end, implying that we should be grateful the committee even held this question and answer session. As she got up to leave, he told her that she did matter—that citizens always mattered when making these decisions. But despite his reassurance his voice was laced with sarcasm.
I can’t help but think if that was the truth than why is the city doing so little to stop it? We have seen what poor developments have done to our rivers.
The committee told us that the owners and architects would be outside to answer our questions but when approached they faked phone calls and ran to their cars. People who have nothing to hide—don’t act like that.
If you are in the Irondale area, or if you care about the Cahaba. I hope you’ll join us this Thursday, April 3 at 6pm at Irondale City Hall. They think telling us there’s nothing to be done can stop us—but that’s not true. Our community is one of fierce advocates that know when to fight for the right thing.
