Hoover planning, zoning guru retires after 40 years as city consultant

The city of Hoover has had a lot of big zoning fights in 50 years, and one man has been in the middle of most of them.

Bob House, the city’s planning consultant for the past 40 years, has been there to see neighborhoods take on developers over plans to build new subdivisions or commercial developments time and time again.

He has enjoyed trying to help the community grow in such a way that incompatible uses don’t interfere with one another so everyone can live in harmony, he said.

But House turns 69 in October and said it’s time for him to give up that task to another generation. “It’s a young man’s job,” he said.

While he has enjoyed his work, he doesn’t enjoy the divisiveness that sometimes comes with it, and people in recent years seem more eager to try to stop a development completely than to negotiate a compromise, he said.

House’s retirement takes effect Sept. 30, and he is turning over the reins to Mac Martin, the new city planner hired by Mayor Frank Brocato to fill House’s shoes.

“It was a privilege to work for the city of Hoover,” House said.

Brocato said House has guided or directed everything built or laid out in Hoover over the past 40 years as the city has experienced unparalleled growth. 

“He has an incredible wealth of knowledge. He’s a wonderful individual,” Brocato said. “And he never gets upset.”

Former longtime Hoover Mayor Frank Skinner, who directed much of Hoover’s most explosive growth, said House has the ability to tell people things they don’t want to hear.

“But he does it with such a professional approach,” Skinner said. “You’d like to hit him, but you can’t. He can tell you unpleasant things. He can also tell elected officials that’s a dumb idea, but he would tell it in such a fashion you would almost agree with him.”

Councilman John Lyda, who formerly served on the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission, said no one taught him more about zoning and planning than House.

“There will never be another Bob House,” Lyda said. “Future generations will enjoy what you have helped guide.”

House was raised in New Jersey but went to Auburn University to get his bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology in 1970 and his master’s degree in city planning in 1974, with a brief stint in the U.S. Army National Guard in between.

His first job was with the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission, where he was a senior planner for three years and then director of the governmental services division for seven years.

His bosses sent him to Hoover around 1977 to help write a new sign ordinance after Hoover won an “onion award” for its big signs along U.S. 31. Stricter rules were adopted, and over time, the large and tall signs have finally disappeared, he said.

Then, House was tasked with rewriting the city’s zoning ordinance with more detailed zoning descriptions and rules. He took a seven-page document and crafted a new one that was 30 to 40 pages long when it was adopted in 1979, he said. Today, additional amendments have made the zoning ordinance probably 100 pages, he said.

House formed his own consulting company in 1984 but continued working with Hoover. For many years, he spent about 50 percent of his time working on Hoover business but also worked with other cities across the state.

In the past three to five years, he has worked exclusively for Hoover, he said.

The biggest zoning fights he recalls were over the Riverchase Promenade shopping center across from the Riverchase Galleria and the Long-Lewis Ford auto dealership and Walmart Supercenter along John Hawkins Parkway. The city was sued over Riverchase Promenade and Walmart but won both cases, he said.

The annexation and zoning of the commercial parts of Inverness also were very contentious, he said.

House said Skinner established a business model in Hoover that was built on doing things with excellence and teamwork, and that model has carried on with subsequent groups of elected officials.

In his retirement, House plans to spend more time with his family and continue his volunteer work with the Community Grief Support group and Children’s of Alabama hospital. He also is about to undergo training to be a court-appointed special advocate for children in the court system. 

“Giving back is important,” he said. “As they say, ‘do something meaningful.’”