Hoover council OKs tax rebate for Whole Foods Market Plaza

The Hoover City Council tonight approved tax rebates of up to $4 million for the Whole Foods Market Plaza shopping center at the southern intersection of U.S. 31 and Lorna Road.

The agreement approved by the council will give the developer of the shopping center, Riverchase Lorna LP, 50 percent of the increased sales tax revenues coming from all the businesses in the shopping center over the next 10 years.

The city will use Nov. 1, 2016, through Oct. 31, 2017, as a baseline year to judge future increases. However, the shopping center developer will get no more than $4 million in rebates in total.

It’s a very similar agreement to economic development incentives the city has given to other shopping centers.

City Administrator Allan Rice said the city expects the bulk of the increased sales tax revenue to come from the Whole Foods Market expected to open Wednesday. However, there are other businesses expected to open in the shopping center as well.

Councilman Casey Middlebrooks was the only council member to vote against the tax rebates. Middlebrooks said the last time the council considered tax incentives for shopping centers on Sept. 11, he asked that wording be included in future tax incentive deals that allows individual businesses in the shopping centers to receive some of the benefit of the tax rebates, rather than just the developer.

Until such language is included in tax incentive deals, he will not vote for them, he said.

Councilman Derrick Murphy abstained from the tax rebate vote, saying one of the divisions of the company for which he works — Gresham, Smith & Partners — has done business with the developer.

Annexation of homes

The City Council tonight also annexed eight pieces of residential property off Melton Road and Silver Spur Lane in the Ross Bridge area, but with a split vote. The properties have seven houses and one vacant lot.

Councilmen John Lyda and Mike Shaw voted against annexation. Lyda noted that the properties do not conform to typical requirements of the A-1 agricultural zoning the properties will have in the city of Hoover. Most of them do not have at least three acres, and many of them are not set back 75 feet from the front of their property line, as required in Hoover A-1 zoning, City Planner Mac Martin said.

Lyda also noted that they would come into the city as part of the Deer Valley Elementary School attendance zone and that there is a double-wide trailer outside Deer Valley Elementary because the school is already overcrowded.

Shaw said if the vote were about whether the people who want to come into the city are good people, there would be no question about it, but he doesn’t believe annexing additional land with homes is in the best interest of the city, given the current school situation.

Middlebrooks said none of the people who live in those homes now have school-age children and none of them plan to move anytime soon, so he doesn’t anticipate any negative impact on the school system.

Most of those homes were already there when Ross Bridge built around them, Middlebrooks said. “We’ve brought Hoover to these people. It’s only fair to them to be part of the community that surrounds them,” he said.

Councilm President Gene Smith noted they already pay fire dues to the Hoover Fire Department, and the Hoover Police Department already is patrolling that area, so there won’t be much of an additional burden from a public safety standpoint. The homes there also will provide property tax revenue to both the city and school system, Smith said.

Mayor Frank Brocato said the residents there are completely surrounded by Hoover but have no voice in what goes on around them. Annexing them will fill in a small hole in the city limits and help alleviate jurisdictional confusion, he said. This is a perfect case for annexation, he said.

Deborah Fout, one of the property owners, said residents are tickled with the council’s decision.

“We’ve been part of the Hoover community for years,” she said. “We just haven’t been recognized as Hoover.”

They shop in Hoover, and Hoover residents jog up and down their street, and they love the neighborhood, Fout said. “It’s just good to have a voice now.”

In other business tonight, the council:

• Agreed to pay Landscape Workshop $86,914 to maintain the landscaping at interstate interchanges that serve as gateways to Hoover and $54,947 to maintain landscaping at various city facilities, and pay $67,567 to Naturescape Inc. to maintain the landscaping along other public roadways.
• Agreed to pay the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority $81,654 to provide transit services in Hoover.
• Agreed to hire S.S. Nesbitt & Co. to provide employee benefits consulting and related insurance brokerage services.
• Gave approval for Signature Homes to build a 5.5-acre park in the second phase of Lake Wilborn that includes a wiffle ball field, basketball court, farmers market, community garden, four cornhole courts, playground, grilling and picnic areas, and a stage and movie screen area that overlooks an open lawn.
• Gave approval for Circle K Stores Inc. to sell gasoline at a Circle K convenience store slated to be rebuilt at 2157 Valleydale Road.
• Reduced the minimum acreage required for a Planned Unit Development, frequently called a PUD, from at least 75 acres to 25 acres when combining office and commercial development with single-family detached homes, 10 acres when combining office and commercial uses with townhouses, and 5 acres when building a mixed-use village center with office and commercial uses on the ground level and residential living on upper floors.