Hoover zoning board doesn't approve new Bluff Park gas station
The Hoover zoning board on Monday night failed to give a thumbs up for a proposal to build a new gasoline station and convenience store in Bluff Park.
Sam Memdani and Kris Patel had asked for permission to put the gas station in the former Dale Serrano Dance building at 2144 Clearbrook Road, which is at the entrance to Shades Mountain Plaza and directly across from one of the entrances to Bluff Park Village.
Dale Serrano Dance sold the .75-acre parcel to Dreamstar Wholesale Distributions for $349,000 in December 2020, according to a deed submitted to the city of Hoover.
Memdani and Patel wanted to tear down the existing building and build a new 5,100-square-foot convenience store with six gasoline pump stations, records show.
However, city staff members who reviewed the application recommended the zoning board not approve the gas station.
Sharon Nelson, the city’s landscape architect, was filling in for the city planner at Monday’s zoning board meeting and said that, while the property is zoned for commercial development, city staff members do not believe it’s appropriate to put a gasoline station on the property because the development is just 75 feet from a residential neighborhood.
“The pump islands and canopy will be visible in the residential neighborhood,” Nelson said.
Karen Johns, a resident in the neighborhood, said she wouldn’t have a problem with a convenience store but would be concerned about having a gasoline station so close because of the lights, noise and safety issues.
The zoning board agreed. Councilman Mike Shaw, who is the City Council’s representative on the zoning board, and zoning board member Nathan Reed, both said they believe the site is in need of redevelopment but is too close to homes for a gas station.
When the proposal came up for a vote with the zoning board, no one would make a motion, so the proposal failed for lack of a motion. However, Memdani and Patel still can take the matter to the Hoover City Council for consideration without a recommendation from the zoning board.
In other business Monday night, the zoning board:
- Recommended the council amend conditions for the Colonial Promenade Hoover shopping center on John Hawkins Parkway to allow deliveries at the Walmart Supercenter to start at 4 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. and to remove a prohibition against drive-thru restaurants.
- Recommended the council allow The Universal Church to locate in the Lorna Town Square shopping center at 3133 Lorna Road, Suite 109, (next to the Golden Corral restaurant) as long as no assemblies are held unless at least 25% of the businesses in the shopping center are closed, with the exception of Wednesdays after 5 p.m. and all day on Sundays.
- Approved final plans for 39 residential lots and three common areas in Phase 1B of the Knox Square subdivision across from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
- Agreed to vacate a portion of a cul-de-sac on Adena Lane between the Cavender’s western wear store and the Dunkin’ doughnut and coffee shop to allow more usable land for a planned retail development that has yet to be named.
- Postponed consideration of a request by Signature Homes and Terra Equities to rezone 15.5 acres along U.S. 280 to accommodate 120 townhomes and three commercial buildings totaling about 25,000 square feet until the Jan. 10 zoning board meeting.