Hoover board recommends zoning 18 acres in Tattersall Park near Greystone for business

July 11, 2016 8:51 PM

Map provided by city of Hoover

The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight voted to recommend the City Council zone about 18 acres off Alabama 119 near Greystone as a community business district.

The property is owned by EBSCO and is part of a larger 75-acre tract called Tattersall Park, which EBSCO hopes to develop for retail stores, office buildings, restaurants, hotels and medical facilities.

All the rest of the 75-acre property already is zoned as a community business district, Hoover planning consultant Bob House said.

With the zoning board’s blessing, the request to rezone the 18 acres at the corner of Alabama 119 and Greystone Way now goes to the Hoover City Council for consideration.

Andrew Phillips, an engineer representing EBSCO at tonight’s zoning board meeting, told the zoning board there are no immediate plans for developing the 18 acres.

Richard Yeilding of RBY Retail, the development agent for EBSCO, said earlier today that EBSCO currently is concentrating on the portion of the 75 acres closer to the new Brookwood Medical Center free-standing emergency department off Alabama 119. EBSCO has a few contracts for portions of the property but is not ready to disclose development details because the deals have not yet closed, Yeilding said.

A November 2015 site plan for the 75-acre Tattersall Park development that is on the RBY Retail website shows a 123,000-square-foot anchor store, six “junior anchor” stores, a gas station and 11 outparcels, but Yeilding said the site plan has been amended since then and frequently changes based on business prospects.

That November site plan also included a 5.6-acre outparcel for a four-story, 200-unit residential development, but Yeilding said the residential portion is no longer in the plans.

Site plan from RBY Retail website

“We continue to look at all opportunities for restaurants, hotels, office buildings and retail uses on the property,” Yeilding said. That includes entertainment venues, he said.

House said tonight that if EBSCO wants to pursue a shopping center as pictured in the November site plan, the company would have to come to the city for “conditional use” approval in the current community business district zoning.

A different version of the Tattersall Park development that was approved in 2002 never materialized. Despite significant opposition from the Greystone residential community, EBSCO won approval from the city, but the development stalled along with the economy.

In other business tonight, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve preliminary plans for the first sector of the Blackridge community, containing 126 houses, just past the planned 500-house Lake Wilborn community being built at the end of Stadium Trace Parkway. Zoning for the 1,523-acre and 1,150-house Blackridge community was approved June 7.

Hoover City Engineer Rodney Long tonight said most of the 126 houses in this first sector of Blackridge will be around a 100-acre lake. Construction of the dam to create the lake has been completed, but it could take six months to a year for the lake to reach its full pool level, Long said.

Signature Homes, the developer of the first part of Blackridge, will have to complete a bridge over some railroad tracks before the city will approve final plans for the first sector, Long said. The extension of Stadium Trace Parkway that includes the bridge will be a public road, but the road will turn private between the bridge and the guardhouse for Blackridge, Long said.