The city of Birmingham will spend $400,000 to create a new plan to address infrastructure, environmental and economic challenges, if Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin gets his way.

Woodfin’s office calls the Birmingham Sustainability Plan a “strategic roadmap” for building a stronger city, but critics say the city has other needs. Work on Woodfin’s plan would begin this spring, if approved by the Birmingham City Council.

“As stewards of our city, we must do all we can to help remove the barriers in creating a healthier, more sustainable community for all,” Woodfin said in a statement announcing the initiative. “I am excited that the city’s experts in sustainability and planning will join with our residents and stakeholders in developing a path for a more resilient future.”

The project will be led by the city along with Colorado-based planning consultant Lotus Engineering & Sustainability, and Hummingbird, an Atlanta-based community engagement firm.

Woodfin’s office said the goal is to have a plan completed by April 2026.

Still, a veteran council member said the other side of City Hall remains unaware of the details. Valerie Abbott, the city council’s most senior member and longtime chair of its planning and zoning committee said the latest initiative is a surprise to her.

“I guess I’ll find out more about it when he shares the information with the council,” Abbott told AL.com. “He just didn’t do it before he made the press release.”

Abbott has long criticized Woodfin’s communication style and what she described as a lack of advance notice to the council regarding major initiatives.

“The council is usually the last to know what’s going on, and that sometimes has a tendency to frustrate the city council because we feel like we are partners except when we are not,” she said.

Woodfin’s staff said the funding was included in the city’s planning, engineering, and permits budget which was approved by the City Council during the city’s budgeting process.

They said a request for proposals was issued and a committee selected the consultant team.

Abbott said she is unsure how the new initiative will integrate into existing efforts to complete the city-wide comprehensive plan.

“This is a problem that the city council has that when it comes to fleshing things out, we are not included, then we have to play catchup,” she said.

Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop, chief resilience and sustainability officer in Woodfin’s office of Resilience and Sustainability, said the initiative is an extension of the city’s comprehensive plan that includes green systems.

“It also addresses other aspects of city business where sustainability can be applied such as transportation and land use policy,” she said.

Abbott said she supports efforts to address long-standing infrastructure needs throughout the city but not before details are presented about the objectives, the consultants and the money.

“At this point all the city council knows is what we’ve seen in the press release,” she said.

Abbott sent a text message to Woodfin with her list of questions seeking specifics on the project. She said Woodfin responded back with a simple, “Yes Ma’am.”

“The council wants to do things to clean up the air and the water because we’re the ones who get the complaints. But how is this going to help?” Abbott said. “I grow weary of just giving money to consultants who don’t actually accomplish things.”

Anna Brown, a longtime Birmingham resident, said she wants the city to focus more on implementing past plans and fulfilling old promises rather than spending resources on new initiatives and concepts.

“We’ve been made promises in the city before and none of those have materialized,” said Brown, who is secretary of the North Birmingham Neighborhood and co-chair of the North Birmingham Community Framework Plan. “Why do we keep spending money to bring other people in with new promises and you have not given any action to the promises that have been made already?”

For example, Brown said her neighborhood is still waiting on action on the long-promised transformation of the former North Birmingham School into a community resource hub, in addition to city help to revitalize the historic yet, largely dormant North Birmingham Business District.

“I’m quite sure we’re not the only neighborhood that’s been promised something,” Brown said. “Let’s honor the promises that have already been made.”