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Developer hits snag for apartments, assisted living center, hotel off Ala. 150

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Map courtesy of city of Hoover

Map courtesy of city of Hoover

Photo by Jon Anderson

Photo by Jon Anderson

A developer is making progress with plans for 264 apartments, a 180-unit assisted living facility, a 96-room hotel and a new office building off John Hawkins Parkway, but he hit another snag with the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night.

Developer Charles Kessler wants to put all those things on 39 acres between Interstate 459 and John Hawkins Parkway, a little west of the UAB Medical West stand-alone emergency room.

Thirty-two of the acres that would hold the apartment complex and assisted living facility are in an unincorporated part of Jefferson County, while the other 7 acres planned for a hotel and office building are in the city limits of Hoover.

But Kessler needs the city of Hoover to approve the subdivision of the land and a road connection to John Hawkins Parkway, and concern over the road connection has been delaying the project for more than a year.

Kessler’s plan is connect to John Hawkins Parkway via ATI Parkway, just west of the self-storage facility, and to have a second connection to Medford Drive, which also leads to John Hawkins Parkway, across from The Grove entrance.

The latest plan is to put a traffic light at the intersection of ATI Parkway and John Hawkins Parkway. However, the Alabama Department of Transportation makes the decision about whether traffic lights are merited on state highways, such as John Hawkins Parkway.

Hoover City Engineer Chris Reeves said ALDOT officials have indicated they are not opposed to a traffic signal there, but ALDOT is requiring a study to determine if a light would be merited based on traffic projections, and that study is not yet complete.

David Rawson, an engineer representing Kessler, told the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night he wasn’t sure when the study would be completed.

Hoover Councilman Mike Shaw, who represents the City Council on the planning commission, said he didn’t feel comfortable approving Kessler’s subdivision and road plans until he knows for sure that a traffic light would be installed.

“There’s too much chaos that can come from not having that guarantee,” Shaw said.

If ALDOT does not approve the traffic signal at ATI Parkway, a lot of the traffic from Kessler’s developments likely will use the Medford Drive traffic light at John Hawkins Parkway instead, Shaw said. That intersection already is oddly shaped and would become a nightmare if it had a lot of traffic from Kessler’s developments added to it, he said.

Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice asked Rawson if the developer would be amenable to connect to John Hawkins Parkway at the current traffic light at the entrance to Lake Crest if the traffic light at ATI Parkway were not approved by ALDOT, and Rawson said no.

A road through the property across from Lake Crest would cut that property in half and render it useless, Rawson said.

Shaw said the road connection at Lake Crest is possible. He said he is pro-development, “but that doesn’t always mean you get to do it the cheapest way possible.”

Planning Commission Chairman Mike Wood asked Rawson if he would like to delay the commission’s vote on his request to give him more time to come up with an alternative solution, given the opposition from some planning commissioners. Rawson reluctantly agreed to ask for another continuance, saying the developer has been working on this project for three years. It first came up for consideration with the planning commission in February of last year and has been continued at every meeting since then.

Kessler last week did get preliminary plans approved for the two lots in Jefferson County by the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission, but he still is seeking the road connections to John Hawkins Parkway in Hoover to make the project work.

WALMART SEEKS ZONING RESTRICTION REPRIEVE

In other business Monday night, the zoning board also considered a request from Walmart to amend some zoning restrictions on part of the Colonial Promenade Hoover shopping center at 2780 John Hawkins Parkway.

Walmart wants to be able accept deliveries as early as 4 a.m. instead of the current restriction of deliveries between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. The reason is that deliveries of fresh items such as meat and produce are not arriving in time for shelves to be stocked for early morning shoppers, City Planner Mac Martin said.

Also, Walmart is asking for the city to remove a zoning condition that prohibits the use of drive-through and curbside services on the parcel that includes Walmart.

Martin said the restaurant industry has changed considerably since these restrictions were put in place in 1999. “We’re in an age where drive-through and drive-up is critical to a lot of the restaurant industry being able to survive,” he said.

Paul Elkourie, a resident of the nearby Cahaba River Estates community who joined a lawsuit against the city of Hoover over approval of the Walmart development in the late 1990s, said he doesn’t expect people in his neighborhood to object to a change in delivery hours, particularly if it might take some delivery trucks off roads in the area during the morning rush hour.

However, he doesn’t think nearby neighbors want the provision that prohibits drive-through and curbside services to be removed.

Either way, he and Trip Galloway, an attorney who represented Cahaba River Estates homeowners who sued the city, said the city by itself can’t remove the zoning conditions put on the property because the city and/or developer was ordered by a Jefferson County judge to follow the zoning conditions as part of a settlement agreement.

Any change in those zoning conditions would have to be approved by all 11 parties in that settlement, Elkourie and Galloway said.

Wood, the planning commission chairman, said the city’s attorneys would need to review that issue further before proceeding, so the case was continued. The case also was continued because no one was there to represent Walmart.

Barry Vickery, another Cahaba River Estates resident, said the prohibition against drive-through and curbside services needs to stay. “We don’t need a Wendy’s or a McDonald’s,” he said. People in his neighborhood want nicer sit-down restaurants on that property, he said.

Plus, the settlement agreement should be honored, Vickery said. “A deal is a deal, and a circuit judge approved the deal,” he said.

Rice said the restaurant business has changed considerably, just in the last year. There are many nice restaurants that are not considered “fast food” that, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began, have started offering drive-through and curbside service, Rice said. And many of them have indicated they will continue to offer those kinds of services once the pandemic is over, he said.

This change would make it easier to attract restaurants to the shopping center, which already has experienced some vacancies, Rice said. Nearby residents need to think about whether they would rather see a drive-through window or restaurant with curbside service instead of a vacant spot, he said.

Martin and Rice also noted that any request for a drive-through restaurant still would come back to the city for approval before it could be allowed.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business Monday night, the planning commission:

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