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By DAVE DOMESCIK | Staff Writer

PELHAM – The Pelham City Council convened for a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 2, with a focus on the redevelopment of the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre space within the city.

During the pre-meeting work session at 4:30 p.m., the council reviewed a master plan proposal from Williams Blackstock Architects, which is part of the city’s ongoing efforts to develop strategic visions for key properties, most notably the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre site. Following this, city officials previewed the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget, providing insight into planned allocations and initiatives for the upcoming year.

The approval of the master plan proposal is a significant step forward in the amphitheatre’s redevelopment, with the goal to produce a comprehensive vision for the site that reflects the desires of property owners, developers, city officials and Pelham residents alike.

“We have explored a lot of different ways to approach the plan for the development of the amphitheatre property, and really feel like this was the best possible plan,” City Manager Gretchen DiFante said.

The city is adopting a charrette, a collaborative and creative brainstorming event, to move the project forward and bring community members and stakeholders together with a team of professionals to explore a shared vision for the property.

The planning process is set to move quickly based on the proposal from Williams Blackstock, with the first public meeting on the property scheduled for the week of Tuesday, July 22.

Stephen Allen, the president of Williams Blackstock, discussed the importance of both the property and the project during the work session.

“This property has a huge collective memory for everybody in Pelham,” Allen said. “What you do here is such an opportunity to grab people’s attention…This (charrette) is your opportunity to inject your idea and your vision to craft something that serves as a vision or framework.”

Along with the public session on the site, Allen detailed that the charrette process would include the Williams Blackstock team working behind the scenes with city officials to understand the site’s opportunities and constraints for development.

“We would love to hear from anyone and everyone (during this process),” Allen said. “You’ve got a wonderful property that really is in the entire metropolitan area’s memory, so what you do with that is really exciting.”

Council member David Coram expressed his excitement for the charrette, emphasizing that community collaboration is vital to processes such as these.

“I really like the concept of the collaboration with the community,” Coram said. “I think sometimes elected officials, we make decisions sometimes and people figure it out later on. I really like we’re bringing (people) into the conversation.”

The council subsequently approved the $65,000 contract with Williams Blackstock to move forward with the master plan and charrette outlined by the company. The project’s funding includes a $47,000 grant awarded to the city from Innovate Alabama, with the remaining $18,000 coming from the city’s economic development budget.

After the discussion on the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre project, the city discussed the upcoming budget for the 2026 fiscal year. DiFante and Jamie Wagner, the city’s finance director, crunched some of the important numbers in the presentation.

“We’re projecting a 2.8 percent increase in total revenues over 2025, which totals $91.2 million,” DiFante said. “That is based on keeping sales tax revenues flat… We know that if we are facing increased costs, certainly the businesses in our city are also going to face increased costs.”

The budget’s priorities include investments in city staff, keeping up the growth in the city’s various parks and recreation facilities and infrastructure improvements.

Councilmember Chad Leverett commended the work of DiFante and Wagner, citing the detail and accuracy of the city’s proposed budget.

“You can look at budgets prepared by cities across the state, and I don’t think any of them compare to the presentation that we put out there,” Leverett said. “The work that you all put in to this is outstanding.”

For more information on the Pelham City Council, visit Pelhamalabama.gov/269/Mayor-City-Council.