Hoover zoning board gives its OK to 63-acre Tattersall Park plan
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission, in a special meeting Thursday night, recommended the Hoover City Council rezone the 63 undeveloped acres left in the Tattersall Park development near the corner of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119.
Part of the land, currently owned by Ebsco Industries, now is unzoned, and part of it is zoned as a C-2 commercial district. Ebsco wants the 63 acres rezoned as a Planned Unit Development with planned commercial use.
For now, that’s a win for the Greystone Residential Association, which has staunchly opposed Ebsco’s earlier plan that called for 250 apartments on the site.
“We’re OK with the zoning tonight,” said Mary Sue Ludwig, a member of the Greystone Residential Association board of directors.
However, she believes Ebsco at some point will come back and ask for a residential component on some of the land. “I have no doubt about that,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure they didn’t lock us out of having a say-so.”
City officials assured Ludwig and the Greystone Residential Association’s attorney that if Ebsco sought a residential use on the land, another public hearing and vote would be required.
Ludwig said she believes Ebsco will have to compromise in some way, perhaps by asking for condominiums or town houses. “We could live with that, but not a million of them,” she said.
Steve Monk, an attorney for Ebsco, said there is no plan for a residential component at Tattersall Park “at this time.”
Potential Publix?
What the latest plan does show, however, is a grocery store on the end of the development closest to U.S. 280. Ebsco has not named that grocery store, but Ludwig said when she met with an Ebsco representative last week, an official from Publix was present and said Publix was looking forward to coming to Tattersall Park.
Ebsco’s plans for Tattersall Park show three primary entrances for the development — one off U.S. 280 that will go all the way through the development called Tattersall Boulevard, one off Alabama 119 called Tattersall Park Drive and one off Greystone Way (the other end of Tattersall Boulevard).
Ebsco also is committed to add a right turn lane on Greystone Way, coming from Alabama 119 and turning right onto Tattersall Boulevard, when Tattersall Boulevard is widened to four lanes, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, Monk said.
There also would be two secondary access points off Alabama 119 with only right turns in and out of Tattersall Park. One of those roads already is open at the Brookwood Baptist stand-alone emergency department. At this point, all the roads would remain private roads, with the option to make them public later.
Ebsco also is committed to building sidewalks on both sides of the streets in Tattersall Park. Most of the sidewalks would be 6 feet wide, but two segments would be 4 feet wide, according to drawings submitted to the city. A sidewalk also would connect with the nearby Greystone Ridge community along Greystone Way, Monk said.
The development will meet the city’s regulations for landscaping and building design standards, he said.
'Trying to get the best we can'
Ebsco on Monday night presented a 57-page revised plan, and city staff and planning commissioners said they wanted more time to review the new document. That’s why the commission postponed consideration of Ebsco’s request Monday night. A special meeting was held Thursday night because Ebsco wants to move the project along to help attract one of the primary proposed tenants.
The Hoover City Council is expected to have a public hearing and vote on the Tattersall Park zoning request on June 18.
Ludwig said Greystone residents believe Ebsco wants to create a nice development, but the problem is that Ebsco does not plan to maintain ownership of the property. The company is selling pieces of it off to separate landowners, some of which are from out of state, and they don’t know how hard Greystone residents have worked to seek out quality development there and they don’t care, Ludwig said.
“It’s a money-making thing,” she said. “I’m not against making money, and I do know that Ebsco would like some return on their investment. It’s not that we are trying to stop any kind of commercial development. We’re just trying to get the best we can for our community.”