Take a minute now to thank Congress for passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

ADD YOUR NAME NOW

Birmingham Association of REALTORS® Advocates for Smart Growth

By HOM Editorial Team
June 2015

The Birmingham Association of REALTORS® is fighting blight in its community by advocating for “Smart Growth.”

Working with local government officials, the Association is promoting a growth and development plan that focuses on coordinated planning across the different communities in the Birmingham area. Many areas need renovating, by removing the urban blight that has developed over the years.

Birmingham has 37 municipalities, each with its own zoning ordinances that govern the development and growth in its community. This situation leads to a wide discrepancy in median housing prices across the area served by the Association. With the Smart Growth plan, the median housing price, residential housing age, neighborhood development age, and demographics would all be consistent throughout the region, offering an increase in median housing prices for several areas and affecting commercial property pricing as well.

In the course of their advocacy for the Smart Growth plan, the Association has also done extensive research into the ways communities and property owners can increase property values and decrease urban blight. The Association is educating government officials and consumers about grant opportunities such as façade grants, which are used to improve the street-facing facades of commercial buildings. Such improvements will make downtown and commercial districts more attractive and will encourage growth and development.

The Birmingham Association of REALTORS® sees the Smart Growth plan as a means of advocating for a healthy community, not through local government control but through the efforts of the entire community.


Related Stories