The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved rezoning a large swath of Smithfield from Legion Field to Parker High School to prepare for a planned update to the Smithfield Court public housing community.

The city has applied for a $50 million federal grant that would kickstart a $294 million investment in the Graymont, Smithfield and College Hills neighborhoods, providing 1,000 subsidized, affordable and market-value homes to replace the 900 units of the aging Smithfield Court.

The plan calls for moving the Smithfield Library from its current location on Center Street on the south side of Eighth Avenue West to a nearby location on the opposite side of Eighth and Center streets where it would be part of a “social innovation center” on the ground floor of a three-story, mixed-use housing complex on the street corner.

Some members of the Graymont Neighborhood Association objected to that part of the plan.

“We need our library,” said Betty Miles.

“That is the only thing we have,” said Willene Body, president of the Graymont Neighborhood Association. “We don’t have places for young people to go. It would be an injustice.”

Cory Stallworth, senior deputy director of community development for the City of Birmingham, said the new “high-tech” library would double in size and be the “crowning jewel” of the redevelopment project.

He told the council that the new library would be ready before the old library was closed, so there would be no interruption in library access for the community.

Sidewalks will connect the neighborhoods to downtown Birmingham, parks, trails and broadband access.

The city’s proposal involved acquiring a little over 11 acres of “surplus property” near Parker High School to build multi-family homes and green spaces. That resulted in some spreading of false rumors that the school would close. To the contrary, city officials say, Parker didn’t need the 11 acres that will be used to build about 350 units of the planned 1,000 units. The build-up around the historic high school should help it as it reinvigorates the neighborhood, officials say.

The City of Birmingham submitted a grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Development’s CHOICE Neighborhood program. Officials said they planned to use the $50 million grant, if awarded, for revitalization efforts in the historic Smithfield community.

Birmingham was named one of eight finalists for the grant in May.

HUD is expected to announce Choice Neighborhood grant recipients within the next two months.