Freshwater Land Trust property eyed for potential greenway

When people think of Hoover, they often think of the retail shopping opportunities and continuous stream of new housing communities under construction.

Some complain about green areas being torn down for new development, but in addition to numerous small parks, the city also has several large tracts of land reserved for conservation and passive park usage.

One of the largest is property owned by the Freshwater Land Trust in western Hoover, between Bluff Park and Ross Bridge and the unincorporated Shannon community. The land trust owns a total of about 440 acres there, including part of Shades Mountain and land along Shades Creek, which snakes through the valley below.

The land currently is off limits to the public, but Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he would love to see some of it opened up for public access so people can enjoy the natural beauty there.

Land trust officials say they are open to the idea and are researching any limitations that may have come with the land.

The nonprofit group bought that property gradually between 2003-08 with money that came from Jefferson County when the county settled a sewer pollution case with the Environmental Protection Agency, said Mary Beth Brown, the communications director for the land trust.

About 160 acres between the James Hill section of Ross Bridge and Shades Mountain have been in Hoover for some time, but the city in March 2018 annexed 259 more acres owned by the land trust, all north of James Hill and on the west side of the CSX railroad tracks and Shannon-Oxmoor Road.

The land trust has another 15 to 20 acres further north along Shannon-Oxmoor Road that are still unincorporated, said Jeffrey Drummond, the stewardship director for the group. That land also likely would have been annexed into Hoover last year if it weren’t for a small strip of right of way the land trust doesn’t own, separating the parcels, Drummond said. He expects it will be annexed into Hoover later, once the legalities are worked out, he said.

REASONS FOR ANNEXATION

One of the reasons the land trust wanted its property in Hoover was so Hoover police could help keep unwanted guests off the land, Drummond said. Some people were using it as a dumping ground for trash and other debris, and young people frequented the site as a remote party location, he said.

“There’s a bonfire pit you can see from space,” he said.

Gunfire was becoming a frequent problem — either from unsanctioned hunters or random gunshots, threatening the safety and tranquility of Ross Bridge residents, Drummond and Brocato said.

“I was getting calls every day from people in Ross Bridge for a while,” Drummond said.

One time, a likely stray bullet whizzed by a Hoover police officer who responded to a report of gunfire in the area, he said.

Drummond has to manage about 4,000 acres owned by the Freshwater Land Trust in eight counties, plus another 3,000 acres where the land trust has conservation easements, so he can’t spend all his time on the Shades Creek property.

Now that the property is in the city limits, police can better keep trespassers off the land, he said. Since the annexation took place, the problems have lessened greatly, he said.

Brocato, who lives in Ross Bridge, agreed. However, he thinks the Freshwater Land Trust property would make a wonderful place for trails with public access. There is some beautiful land that runs along the creek, and the creek is a great place for fly fishing, he said.

Brown and Drummond said the primary reason the land trust bought the Shades Creek property was to protect the waterway and water quality by preventing development of nearby land, including forest land, flood plains and wetlands.

“We need these buffers along creeks,” he said.

The natural buffer areas help slow the flow of water into the creek, and the floodplains give water more places to go instead of unnaturally eroding the creek banks, he said.

Plus, keeping the land undeveloped makes for a better view for people on top of Shades Mountain in Bluff Park, he said.

BUILDING TRAILS

However, a secondary goal of the land trust is to build trails so people can enjoy the natural areas that are being preserved. So land trust officials also are interested in the possibilities for trails on the property along Shades Creek, Brown said.

The land trust and Jefferson County Health Action Partnership in 2012 completed a master plan for a Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System. The plan, developed with input from thousands of people in Jefferson County, calls for 750 miles of greenways and paths that connect communities throughout the county and give people a place to walk and cycle safely and enjoy nature.

One part of the plan calls for the development of a greenway along Shades Creek, including the property owned by the Freshwater Land Trust and property further south, all the way to Jefferson County 6 on the south side of Alabama 150.

Carolyn Buck, the Red Rock Trail System director for the Freshwater Land Trust, said her group, other conservancy groups, city officials and regional planners have been slowly working on trail plans throughout the county.

There are no concrete plans for a greenway on the Shades Creek property, but if Hoover officials are interested in making it a reality, the land trust would be supportive of those efforts, she said.

The first hurdle is to determine whether the land trust can legally put trails there. Only 10% of the original land trust property bought with the money from Jefferson County/EPA settlement can be developed for public access, Drummond said. The Freshwater Land Trust already has another one of those properties with public access, so land trust officials must figure out the percentages to see if they can do the same on the Shades Creek site, he said.

If they can and the Freshwater Land Trust board decides to move forward with such a project, the next step would be figuring out how to fund the trails. The Freshwater Land Trust in the past has partnered with other conservancy groups and governmental entities to move projects forward, but “these things do take time,” Brown said.

FINDING THE MONEY

It usually takes a combination of city, state and federal funding and donations from businesses and private foundations, Brown said.

Hoover’s bicycle and pedestrian plan also shows a proposed greenway along Shades Creek but lists it as a “low priority,” meaning it likely would take 20 or more years for implementation.

Brocato said he wouldn’t consider it a low priority.

“It’s a project that could really happen. It’s doable,” he said. “I think it would be easy to get a lot of partners on that to help fund it.”

Tim Westhoven, Hoover’s chief operations officer, said there are specific pots of federal money that can be utilized for greenway projects, such as projects that involve alternate means of transportation or projects that will help reduce traffic congestion and thus improve air quality.

However, “we’d be in line with everybody else going after federal grants,” and the federal grant process tends to lengthen the time it takes to get projects done, he said.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs also gives grants for trail projects, but the trails have to be on dedicated park land, Westhoven said. He’s not sure whether the Freshwater Land Trust property qualifies, he said.

Another option would be to use city money and/or private donations.

Drummond noted that the Freshwater Land Trust property along Shades Creek already has numerous rough vehicular paths in it that Jefferson County Environmental Services and utility companies use to reach gas, sewer and power lines. If those paths could be reworked into the greenway plan, it might could save some time and money and be less disruptive to the ecosystem, he said.

To learn more about the Red Rock Trail System, go to freshwaterlandtrust.org/ about-red-rock-trail-system.

To see the city of Hoover’s bicycle and pedestrian plan, go to futurehoover.com and click on the “Comprehensive Plan” tab for a link.