Triangle District incentive discussion continue

By Grace Lovins

After initially recommending short-term fixes to Birmingham’s zoning ordinance provision offering bonus height to buildings in the city’s Triangle District, the planning board again took up conversation on incentives in the district during the Wednesday, February 26, meeting.

City staff and planning board members initially began looking at the Triangle District in early 2024 after an influx of development applications in the district. At that time, the ordinance included a provision that allowed developers additional stories if the building obtained LEED certification—a globally recognized certification that evaluates the environmental friendliness of a building.

On top of the LEED provision, the board found other issues they wanted to address, including the type of mixed-use buildings they wanted to see in the district. The board recommended a short-term fix to the city commission that removed the LEED provision and expanded the definition of mixed-use among other minor changes, which was approved by the commission last November.

The board revisited the ordinance during Wednesday’s meeting to look at long-term fixes to the ordinance based on a researched list of incentivized amenities found in other communities. Planning director Nick Dupuis said that, based on previous discussions, the board is looking at getting away from the Triangle District Urban Design Plan in favor of the Birmingham 2040 Master Plan, further implementing incentive zoning that provides a public good and potentially conducting a market analysis or cost-benefit analysis.

Several of the board members felt a market analysis was unnecessary due to cost and, as board member Daniel Share stated, the board likely already knows the answer the study would provide. He offered that instead it would be beneficial to know the current office and retail vacancies in both the downtown area and Triangle District.

In talking about potential avenues to pursue incentive zoning, several board members agreed that affordable/attainable/moderately-priced housing and public amenities as two of the key amenities the city should look to seek in the TriangleDistrict.

“At this point, we’re not necessarily trying to incentivize a particular use or a particular development, we’re trying to set up an ordinance so that this district is ready to provide us with what we want when the demand kicks up and have an ordinance that incentivizes perhaps the size and shape of those uses when demand kicks up,” chair Scott Clein said.

The board suggested that Dupuis and the planning department look into how other communities approach moderately-priced or attainable housing and bring to them information about what has and has not worked. No formal action was taken by the board, but they will continue to analyze the ordinance during future meetings.