Drawing courtesy of the City of Trussville
A rednering of the proposed Serra Automotive landscape design.
TRUSSVILLE -- Trussville’s Design Review Committee on Monday, May 23, approved fence and landscaping design for Serra Automotive at 1751 Gadsden Highway.
The design shows what appear to be eight trees or tall bushes in the area between Serra Hyundai and the Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home and Gardens property. Additionally, the design shows nine more on the opposite side of the Serra property and nine more directly in front of the Serra property along Gadsden Highway. The application also included fencing.
In April, Serra removed trees between the two properties to expand its parking lot, which upset families of loved ones buried near the property line.
On April 18, Jennifer Bowen posted her frustrations on Facebook about the parking lot extension, saying it was “sad” that the removal of the trees caused “a lot of families at a grave site of their loved ones pain years later due to greed.”
Bowen said in her Facebook post that her husband and son had to dig a new hole to move a statue to for a loved one buried there.
“The car dealership actually just started cutting down trees without anyone’s knowledge – not the families nor the funeral home, the groundskeeper at the graveyard begged them to stop.”
In other Design Review Committee news:
- Signage and a building concept were approved for a Starbucks location that will be built where the former BBVA Compass was at 5990 Chalkville Mountain Road. This location is in addition to the proposed location in the former Burger King on Gadsden Highway.
- Trussville Social received sign approval at the Trussville Entertainment District.
- Birmingham Orthodontics received design concept approval for a multi-tenant medical and retail building that will be located at 518 Main St. in the Hamilton development. The building will have two retail spaces along with the Birmingham Orthodontics component. The developer, according to Trussville City Councilman Ben Short, mentioned that Smoothie King will be a possible tenant for one of the retail spaces and will have a drive-thru. The other tenant was not named.
