Responding to a request from the East Brewton Planning Board, council members agreed to expand the area in the city referred to as the business district.
East Brewton Mayor Terry Clark said the change was one that would continue to uphold a plan in place to require businesses to maintain an attractive storefront.
“This will extend our business district beyond the intersection of Alabama 41 and U.S. 29,” Clark said. “Right now our business district ends there and it hasn’t given us any control over how a business looks when they come into the city. This expansion will require any new business that comes into the city to abide by guidelines we have in place to keep the city looking nice.”
Lawton Shipp, planning board member, said the guidelines are in place for newly constructed buildings in the city.
“This extension is an effort to make sure that any newly-constructed building within 200 feet of a public street has the proper appearance,” Shipp said. “These guidelines prevent anyone from coming in and putting up a straight metal building without properly taking care of the façade.”
Councilman Byron Palmer said most new businesses would likely erect metal buildings on their site.
“With today’s economy, just about any business that comes in is going to be in a metal building,” Palmer said. “It’s more economical for them that way. If we tell them they can’t have a metal building or that they have to do so much work to it, that could prevent a business from opening here.”
Ship said the guidelines only provide that the walls of a metal building used as a business that are within 200 feet of a public street are required to be adapted to the guidelines in place.
After discussion with the council and Shipp, the group agreed to the extension and suggested an amendment to the guidelines may be in order.
In other business the council heard from East Brewton Police Chief Kenny Brazile on the plan for a teen curfew in the city.
“I just wanted to give our final draft of the curfew to allow you to see what we have planned,” Brazile said. “The draft has gone to our attorney to be checked again and we are waiting to hear from him.”
Brazile said the plan is to implement the curfew once approved by the council and the attorney for the city.
“Once we have approval, we will have a 30 day probation period,” Brazile said. “After the curfew is in place for 30 days, we will then be issuing tickets and assessing fines. We hope to put the blame where it should be and that is on the parents of the juveniles who break curfew.”