Hoover residents advise caution on building performing arts center
If the city of Hoover builds a performing arts center, it doesn’t need to build something so big that it kills other arts facilities in the Birmingham area, some residents told city officials tonight.
“Would adding one more be the straw that breaks the camel’s back where all of them collapse because none of them can get enough customers to make it?” Altadena Woods resident Jack Goertz asked at the third of four public meetings soliciting people’s vision for the city’s future.
Downtown Birmingham has some excellent arts facilities, including the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, Alys Stephens Center, Red Mountain Theater, Alabama Theatre and Lyric Theatre, Goertz said. “Don’t kill the downtown arts district,” he said.
Goertz was one of 17 people who showed up for the Future Hoover meeting at Jefferson State Community College’s Shelby-Hoover campus. Other topics addressed included sidewalks, rapid bus transit, a satellite library in the U.S. 280 corridor and the need for a plan to recoup tax money lost because of internet sales.
Sharon Tinsley, a resident of the Green Valley community, said Hoover does need a theater bigger than the 250-seat theater at the Hoover Public Library. The city also needs to do something to support the artists who have been operating out of the old Bluff Park Elementary School building, she said.
However, Tinsley said the city’s primary focus right now should be to make the new 155,000-square-foot Finley Center at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex a success before the city looks to build a new theater.
Now is the time to market the Finley Center because the BJCC is about to experience traffic issues due to the rebuilding and closure of the Interstate 20/59 bridges that pass right by the BJCC, Tinsley said. If Hoover can recruit some of those events that otherwise might go to the BJCC and treat them well, the city might be able to get some of those events on a more permanent basis, she said.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said the city received a lot of positive feedback from the Junior League of Birmingham’s Market Noel event last week. That event helped introduce a lot of new people in the metro area to the Finley Center, he said.
Ken Jackson, a resident of the Southlake community, said building and maintaining a first-rate theater would require an incredible amount of money. But the city has an opportunity to get a great return on investment with the Finley Center, especially among the nonprofit community that needs large venues for fundraising events, Jackson said.
Sandra Fuller, a resident of The Preserve community, said there is still a gap between the size events that can be held at the Hoover Library Theatre and the larger venues in Birmingham. Hoover also needs a place where visual arts can be taught, she said.
Councilman Curt Posey said a committee is exploring the creation of a city arts commission to better define the city’s artistic and cultural needs and seek out grants and other ways to fund such initiatives.
His philosophy is to start small and grow into a bigger facility later, he said. It could be there is a need for multiple small facilities in different parts of Hoover and later a larger facility to serve the city at large, he said.
Susan Goertz, Jack Goertz’s wife, said it’s very important for the city to create more sidewalks and pedestrian pathways. The city is doing a good job of adding sidewalks in Bluff Park but needs them in other places, such as along John Hawkins Parkway, Caldwell Mill Road and Valleydale Road, she said.
It’s a shame sidewalks were not included with the five-laning of John Hawkins Parkway, she said.
City Administrator Allan Rice said a 2.5-mile sidewalk is planned along John Hawkins Parkway between U.S. 31 and the entrance to Cahaba River Estates. It is funded and in the design stage, he said.
Susan Goertz said both sides of John Hawkins Parkway need sidewalks, and there need to be crosswalks to get across the busy road. Rice said currently there is only funding for a sidewalk on one side of the road. Adding crosswalks will be a second phase of the project, he said.
Rice said city officials understand that sidewalks are critical and noted that a proposal is being considered to require sidewalks on both sides of the street in future residential and commercial developments.
Brocato said the new Stadium Trace Village shopping center being built along John Hawkins Parkway at Stadium Trace Parkway will have sidewalks within it and extending to surrounding areas. The city also is working with Ebsco Realty to include sidewalks in the Tattersall Park development at the corner of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119, he said.
“We’re doing everything we can to make our city a walkable city,” Brocato said.
Other ideas suggested tonight included:
- Expanding rapid transit bus options from downtown Birmingham to Hoover and within Hoover to get people, especially out-of-town guests, to popular destinations in the city, including the Finley Center, Aldridge Gardens and shopping and dining areas
- Adding a satellite branch of the Hoover Public Library, perhaps in Tattersall Park
- Finding ways to recoup lost sales tax money due to internet sales
- Making the city’s sewer system pay for itself instead of supplementing it with money from the city’s general fund
- Encouraging Hoover residents to spend their money in Hoover stores and businesses
The final Future Hoover meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at Greystone Elementary School. Brocato said city officials will use input from all four of the Future Hoover meetings to help guide decisions.
Read about the first meeting at Hunter Street Baptist Church here and the second meeting at the Hoover Municipal Center here.