By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City Council will gather public feedback in late January on a plan to change how the city handles zoning for properties annexed into the city, and likely will vote on the matter the same night.

Council members voted on Dec. 17 to set a public hearing on the matter for its Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. at Alabaster City Hall at 1953 Municipal Way.

If passed, the ordinance will make changes to the way the city handles zoning for properties as they are brought into the city.

Currently, any property annexed into Alabaster is brought in with a municipal reserve zoning, which is intended “to maintain the current use of a property” as it was before it was annexed into the city limits.

The municipal reserve zoning serves as a temporary placeholder until the property owner brings a request for a more permanent zoning to the council. A municipal reserve zoning restricts what the owner can do to the property, which can become a burden, particularly with the high number of annexation requests the city has seen over the past few years, said Alabaster City Administrator Brian Binzer.

“Now, you zone it municipal reserve when you take it in, and then people have to come to the City Council later to request a rezoning,” Binzer said. “Under municipal reserve, the homeowner can’t get a building permit to make renovations or build on the property.”

If the changes are passed in January, the city would start pre-zoning properties before they are annexed into the city, meaning the council could vote to pre-zone a property and then annex it during the same meeting. The pre-zoning would be contingent on the property actually being annexed into Alabaster.

“That would allow you to take care of zoning up-front and then annex it in the same meeting,” Binzer said, noting the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission has signed off on the proposed changes.

Over the past few years, the city has seen an influx of annexation requests from individuals in unincorporated Shelby County who would like their children to attend Alabaster City Schools, Binzer said.