Click here to download the revised vision and principles poster

You told us your hopes for the City of Birmingham’s future in the public meetings over the last few months. Now you can to see how the plan is taking shape by stopping by one of three Open House meetings. See below for details, then scroll to the bottom for maps to each location.

Monday, March 12
Birmingham CrossPlex
2331 Bessemer Road

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Tuesday, March 13     
Birmingham Public Library
Central Branch (1st Floor atrium)
2100 Park Place

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Thursday, March 15
Don Hawkins Recreation Center
8920 Roebuck Blvd.

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Welcome to the City of Birmingham’s website, an interactive informational website dedicated to creating Birmingham’s Comprehensive Plan.  With a commitment to openness and transparency, we will provide a clear vision for our goals and a complete guide for our decision-making process over the next 20 years.

In 2009, as the newly elected Mayor of Birmingham, I pledged to you that my mission was about what we can and will accomplish together.  To that end, it has been 50 years since Birmingham’s last comprehensive plan was implemented.  Today, our city is at a crucial crossroad, where we are in need of your ideas, input, and insight as to how we can best move our great city forward and further enrich the lives of all citizens.
As I have said many times, everything we accomplish in Birmingham will be the result of a team effort—all of us working together in unity.  Through hard work and commitment we will:

• Continue to rebuild and revitalize our great city;
• Develop strategies to improve quality of life in our neighborhoods and communities;
• Bring appropriate economic development and growth to Birmingham and its business districts;
• Lay a firm foundation for job creation, business development, and an expanded tax base;
• Maximize our recreational and environmental assets–and more.

Whether you live, work, play or operate a business in Birmingham, you should take pride in this important initiative. It will bring the voices of our residents, business owners and other stakeholders together, and bridge racial, cultural, and political differences, creating strength and unity out of diversity.

I urge you to actively participate in the forums and meetings planned throughout the planning process.  Please join us along this great journey and be ready to:

• Bring your knowledge and experience;
• Listen, learn; and dialogue;
• Discuss and work to find common ground solutions;
• Leave your personal imprint on the future of Birmingham.

I look forward to engaging you on important issues and working to find the best solutions to move us into the 21st Century.  Again, let’s join together for the hope and future of Birmingham as we are “United for the Good of the City.”

Warm Regards,

William A. Bell, Sr.
Mayor

It is indeed an exciting time to be a part of the movement and growth of the City of Birmingham as we start the process of developing the Birmingham Comprehensive Plan.  For many years, members of the Birmingham City Council have expressed an overwhelming concern for the implementation of a citywide comprehensive plan.  I am pleased that the decision made by this Council, to include capital funding for a comprehensive plan and the decision made by our current Mayor to launch the planning process, is coming to fruition.

An old proverb reads “where there is no vision, the people shall perish.”  The Birmingham Comprehensive Plan seeks to provide a vision to reinvent Birmingham for the future.  The plan will be designed to systematically improve all of our neighborhoods by addressing the needs of the City’s most important resource, its people.  In order to preserve the vitality of our City, the Birmingham Comprehensive Plan will include input from all of Birmingham’s residents.  It will lay the foundation for Birmingham’s growth into one of the most livable cities in the world.  This will be accomplished by focusing on those quality of life improvements that residents want within the plan.  Improvements such as: more neighborhood grocery and retail stores, more green space, more housing options for all income levels, better uses for vacant lots, more bicycle lanes, and better connected communities that are easily accessible by various forms of mass transportation are just a few of the improvements that this plan seeks to include.

In closing, the Council would like to encourage each of you to participate as we move forward with this plan.  The Mayor and the Council, along with our partners on this project, Goody Clancy, a national architecture and planning firm that specializes in comprehensive plans; other national experts, Mt. Auburn Associates and Kittelson Associates; as well as local Birmingham companies including KPS Group, BLOC Global Group, NHB Group, Khafra Engineering, and Enclave Communications; are working hard to ensure that your voices will be heard in planning the future of our City.  It is my belief that good government is government that includes the voices of many.  It is our hope that you will allow your voices to help shape this plan.

Sincerely,

Roderick V. Royal, M.P.A
Birmingham City Council President