TALLADEGA — Yet another ambitious business project in downtown Talladega has hit a snag.Tim Burt, owner of Parkside Home and Garden, which was planning a location on the south side of the square, next to the old Braswell’s Building. Burt said he commissioned an $18,000 architectural design that included a loading dock on the back of the building and enough alley clearance to get an 18-wheeler to the loading dock.
“I was planning to start renovating in October or November, and have the store ready to open by the first of next year,” he said. “The architect had checked everything against the city codes, everything was fine, ready to go. But when I came back a month later, there was this big deck sticking out into the middle of the alley.”
The deck is actually a fire escape built to city specifications for the Mr. Closeout location that will be moving into the rest of the Braswell’s Building, which has itself been controversial if not altogether star-crossed.
Owner Mario Musa had originally planned a much smaller deck that would not protrude into the city’s right of way, but was told that because of the building’s high occupancy, a much larger deck would be required, and Musa would need to get a variance to build in the right of way.
The variance was duly approved by the city Board of Adjustments and Appeals and the City Council.
Burt said he never knew anything about the variance request, and was never contacted about it, even though he owns the only adjacent property.
“I’ve already talked with the city’s attorney, and he agreed with me that the variance should never have been granted without notifying me. You just can’t do that.”
Actually, according to City Clerk Beth Cheeks, a notification was sent out, but it went to the wrong person.
“When Mr. Musa brought his request before the Board of Adjustments and Appeals, our records indicated that the lady who owned Betty Paul’s still owned that building…When property is sold, the deed is recorded at the courthouse, but we used the Alawin database from Alabama Map and Data Services to look up the adjacent property owners.”
The database was last updated in 2007, before Burt purchased the building.
“I need the space in that alley for deliveries,” Burt said. “I can’t do anything now, and I’ve already spent a fortune to plan the loading dock. The basement is the same size as the building, it’s solid cement and it’s dry, which makes it perfect for storage. And I wouldn’t have really had a problem if I had known this was going to be happening beforehand. But I didn’t. There is a lack of communication.”
Cheeks said she had indicated that the city would be willing to work with Burt to remedy the problem whatever way she could, possibly by clearing a lane through the public parking lot between the back of the building and the Davy Allison Memorial Park, to allow access from that route. “I don’t really know what else we could do other than that,” she said.
Burt said he was still considering addressing the issues to the Talladega City Council, but was leaning more toward hiring an attorney.
City Manager Michael Stampfler, who came to Talladega in July, said he was not familiar enough with the specific issues involved in this situation to comment, but did say situations like this are one reason for his recommendation that the city create a single, unified Community Development Department, which would cover all aspects of retail and commercial growth and revitalization.
“This is one more reason to further strengthen the idea of a single point of contact to help businesses in the city,” Stampfler asserted. “That’s actually exactly what Community Development is designed to do. The situation is untenable right now. There are just too many different people and too many different agencies you have to deal with. It needs to be changed.”
Parkside is based in Birmingham and recently opened a new location in Mobile. Burt told The Daily Home earlier this year, “We’re considered an upscale home décor store. We carry garden elements like fountains, and we carry furnishings like sofas, chairs and an exclusive line of candles. We also have an exclusive line of art.”
