Trinity Medical/Montclair Road

Throughout the summer we have labored to aid in promoting positive development in the city. Thanks to all of you we were able to encourage reasonable compromise in both the Walgreens and Chick-Fil-A debates and show that when a community comes together good things are possible.
Now we have another challenge looming on the horizon. As many of you are aware, Trinity Hospital is well on their way to relocating down on 280 on the site of the unfinished Healthsouth hospital. While this move has its pros and cons, it presents us with a challenge; what to do with the site they are vacating on Montclair Road. Many of you live close to the site and are understandably concerned with how this will affect you and your neighborhoods. And having another vacant property within the city should not be attractive to any of us. However, there has already been some good movement towards thinking about the redevelopment of the site. The Mayor has assembled a task force to spearhead the redevelopment and there have been numerous commentaries from citizens all over the city suggesting alternatives for the campus. The time is ripe to bring everyone together and bring a concerted focus to addressing this opportunity.
Yes, I said opportunity. Unlike the situation when Carraway Hospital closed, we have ample notice and time to prepare an solution. And we have the recent positivity that has been blossoming in the city to lend energy to finding a solution that can benefit the community. We have many creative and wonderful people within our community who I am sure are willing to lend their time to assisting in this effort. Our good friends in Norwood have laboring to assemble their own task force to address Carraway. Their experience will no doubt help and perhaps will lead to a combined push to develop both campuses. Charles Ball at the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham has already stated that he is laboring to bring the cities of Birmingham and Mountain Brook together to consider the revitalization of the whole Montclair corridor. The Birmingham Business Alliance is ready to release Blueprint Birmingham which I am confident will contain elements that could aid this effort as well. In short, unlike any time in recent history, the people and groups with the Birmingham area are beginning to see that what affects some of us, in truth, affects all of us and that working together is the most effective means to ensure success.
We at IBIB were already looking at meeting in the Crestwood neighborhood very soon and this seems to coincide with the interest in the Trinity campus’s future. Therefore we are attempting to organize a conference between all these parties and others to begin what I believe will be a fruitful co-endeavor. To that end we are asking each of you to aid in encouraging the Mayor, the task force, and these diverse organizations to come together for the good of the community. We would ask that you email or phone your support to them supporting the idea of a cooperative conference.  Thank you all for your efforts and thank you for believing in Birmingham and its potential.