On Tuesday, July 25, the Tuscaloosa City Council will vote to accept or deny a rezoning request from Springbrook Investments LLC. The rezoning request stems from Springbrook’s desire to turn a 23-lot property that includes residential houses into a four-building retail center. The retail center, if approved, would be 44,000 square feet.

For this project to go through, city council must vote to switch the plot of land from residential zoning to retail zoning in order to accommodate the proposed retail stores. However, residents of the homes owned by Springbrook are among people who have protested the proposal since the beginning as they wish to preserve their neighborhood.

Although the company has a positive outlook on the area if the rezoning is approved, they have yet to determine what stores will go into this new retail center. This uncertainty is enough to have some Tuscaloosa residents on the fence about whether the proposal is a good idea.

If the council denies Springbrook’s request, they will have to wait six months to begin the rezoning process over again. People are also sympathetic of the citizens who currently reside in the area under rezoning proposal.

This subject has drawn larger-than-normal crowds for the council meetings as residents have expressed how they feel about the issue. The proposal has already been denied twice since 2015 by the Planning and Zoning commission, including just last month.

Springbrook Investments LLC includes local investors and developers Richard Henry and Brock Corder.