This is a guest opinion column

Our current neighborhood association process needs to be blown up — and rebuilt.

Stay with me.

We’re operating under a Citizen Participation Plan that made a lot of sense in 1975 (as did typewriters, pay phones and printing movie times in the newspaper). Just about everything in the world has changed since then. So why are we still subjecting ourselves to a legacy system that is no longer fit for purpose?

I want to be perfectly clear. Our current process is not inclusive — residents are left out of the decisions, they’re not provided with relevant information prior to meetings, and God forbid they might have a scheduling conflict for the once-a-month meeting time. A friend of mine doesn’t get off work until after 7 p.m. and they would love to vote on the issues. We can do better than that.

Every single resident of a neighborhood needs an opportunity to have their voice heard on matters that impact them, especially in this era of rapid information exchange. I know plenty of people who want to be involved, but don’t want to sit and listen to the same three people air out their dirty laundry for an hour just so they can cast their vote on a rezoning case. Obviously discourse is important, but simple accommodations need to be made for people to vote without being subjected to that if they don’t want to be.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve watched a neighborhood officer advocate for a strip club in their neighborhood multiple times. I have seen neighborhood officers say they would be totally fine with an “entertainment center” that promoters can rent out until 2 a.m. I’ve seen liquor stores get the thumbs up for opening in the middle of a neighborhood with just five or six votes. My guess is that if you polled the entire neighborhood they would not want these businesses next door to their homes.

Not every neighborhood association is the same; some have little to no attendance and others have very active participation. However, during my time as a neighborhood officer and a city councilor, I’ve seen countless examples of neighborhood associations having less than five people vote on major issues like rezoning cases, liquor licenses, you name it.

We can remedy this broken system.

A solution would be having an online platform where residents can verify their identity and have the ability to cast a vote remotely. This would have to be secure, and you would need to be able to prove your residence to be verified, but these platforms already exist — we do this to renew our car tags, passports, licenses etc.

This online portal would also allow residents the opportunity to read proposals – site maps, graphics, zoning information – to have a clear understanding of the issue before they vote.

In this hypothetical scenario (heavy emphasis on ‘hypothetical’ because this is merely my own opinion and absolutely no steps have been taken to implement this) in-person meetings could still happen if that’s what a neighborhood wanted. But the truth is having a scheduled monthly neighborhood vote where everybody could participate, regardless if they can attend in person or not, would give everyone a voice. That’s what we all want, right?

This would curb the misinformation that is typically spread online by letting residents review proposals themselves and then cast a vote. Maybe a small liquor store makes sense to serve the neighborhood, but maybe it doesn’t if there are already four or five within a few blocks. We need more than a handful of people voting on these things or else what’s the point?

Perhaps most importantly, we need a preauthorization vote for zoning. Unfortunately, the current process brings zoning cases to the neighborhood meetings after the ball is already rolling on a development.

There is also a major issue with notification. State law dictates that only residents living within a few hundred feet of a proposed zoning change be notified by mail.

If we had a requirement for a preauthorization vote, a developer or business owner could get a clear picture of whether or not their vision lines up with what the residents want to see.

I would challenge everyone reading this to attend one of Birmingham’s 99 Neighborhood Association meetings and ask themselves: Is this the best way to gauge how an entire neighborhood feels? On a really good night, these meetings have 20 to 30 people – often the same people in a neighborhood with 2,000 to 3,000 residents. If the true ethos of a neighborhood association is grounded in having everyone’s voice being heard, in 2025, there are simply better ways to achieve that. And I think together we can make that happen.

Hunter Williams represents District 2 on the Birmingham City Council.