Chelsea receives update on Alabama Communities of Excellence progress

The city of Chelsea is looking toward a time of change. Just what that change might look like was the topic at hand during April Chelsea Business Association luncheon.

At the April 11 luncheon, members of Chelsea’s Alabama Communities of Excellence team presented their findings and potential next steps for the city. The presentation served as a follow-up to the city’s ACE assessment in early January, during which community stakeholders came together to discuss how they would like to see the city of Chelsea grow and develop.

“This is really good timing for Chelsea to be involved in this. You’ve got good leadership. It amazes me how many people in the community are involved in making a difference,” said Nisa Miranda, the director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development and a member of Chelsea’s ACE team.

As they work with the community, Miranda said, ACE will help provide skills and guidance to move ahead with plans.

A key in looking forward, Miranda said, is thinking of what Chelsea will need when it is double its current size. Before the population grows to that point, she said, it is important to consider where new neighborhoods should be located, when a new school might be necessary and what amenities will be needed to sustain a large population. Considering those points now, she said, can allow for better planning and the ability to avoid issues other cities face.

“A lot of these things have to be done together, so anticipating that growth and determining what is a sensible place to put these facilities is very important,” Miranda said. She gave an example of Baldwin County, where residents face a bottleneck caused by improper placement of two schools on the island. “It is a nightmare, and everybody that lives there complains about it, but so many of these were mistakes of the past and they’re trying to figure out how to remedy it today.”

Comprehensive planning, which takes into account potential growth and development, helps ward off some of those issues. They can take into account needs, what property needs to be acquired and overall think about the city’s future of fast and likely continual growth.

In preparation for the next step, Miranda said leadership, tools and implementation are important.

“What will come out of the strategic planning process is there will be lots of ideas, and those ideas can either sit on the shelf, or there can be a team of people that can take that idea and make it live,” she said.

At the January assessment, stakeholders were asked to make notes of areas that were working, not working and needed improvement within the city. The ACE team recognized a few priorities, said Miranda and Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham principal planner Lindsay Puckett.

These priorities included addressing high sewer connection fees, ensuring that retail meets community needs, filling gaps in city limits and creating a true “downtown” area, they said, in addition to developing other parts of the community.

This includes making Chelsea somewhere individuals of all ages would want to live, Miranda said. In order to retain that population and attract new residents, she said, there needs to be a variety of housing, from places that young professionals can live to smaller homes where older residents can move after their children leave home.

“The economic health of your community is going to be very tied to the quality of education and the quality of the housing, but the options in the housing is a part of that. Not everybody wants to live in a house with 5 acres,” Miranda said. “So you guys have to come to terms in terms of how you see your community.”

Chelsea also struggles with infrastructure problems, Puckett said, including a lack of sidewalks, connections between neighborhoods and limited access to retail on U.S. 280. This lack of connectivity, she said, not only leads to traffic problems but can also discourage people sticking around and shopping. If someone has to get in their car to go somewhere else, she said, they’re less likely to go to the next place to spend more money.

One way Chelsea is looking to address this, in addition to its work with ACE, is by creating an overlay district. The Chelsea City Council voted in February to authorize Mayor Tony Picklesimer to enter a contract with the Regional Planning Commission to update the city’s comprehensive plan — something that’s a few years overdue, Puckett said — and create an overlay district.

Overlay districts are zoning tools that establish land development standards on top of current zoning regulations. These standards are stricter, Puckett said, and help promote a consistent design in the area. In Chelsea, they plan to have the overlay district where there is B-2 zoning and would apply to new development and redevelopment.

“We want the corridor to look more uniform in appearance and be more aesthetically pleasing, instead of like everywhere Alabama,” Puckett said. This can create a sense of place and attract people as they come through the area.

Multiple Alabama cities have these districts, including Homewood, Hoover and Mountain Brook in the immediate area. Puckett said while overlay districts can get a “bad rap,” neighboring communities show that these regulations can be done successfully.

Starting this month, Puckett said they have planned work sessions with the Chelsea Planning Commission and other city officials to discuss different rules, including building materials, landscaping, grading or drainage and streetscape elements.

They will work about three to four months on developing the overlay district, Puckett said, before the city will have the chance to approve and implement it.

The next steps for Chelsea, Miranda said, are holding leadership development sessions over the summer, beginning strategic planning planning in the fall. As the city moves forward, they hope Chelsea will influence neighboring communities as well, Miranda said.