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Hoover zoning board denies request to allow auto dealership in Tattersall Park

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Map courtesy of city of Hoover

Greystone residents won a zoning disagreement Monday night when the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously denied Ebsco Industries’ request to change the development plan for Tattersall Park.

Ebsco had asked the city to change the development criteria to permit any allowed use in a Planned Commercial zone, except a truck stop. This change would have allowed automobile dealerships and motels — two uses that currently are prohibited in Tattersall.

A representative for Ebsco on Monday night said the developer had no interest in having a motel on the site, but City Planner Mac Martin said Ebsco officials had indicated they had a potential client interested in putting an auto dealership on 13-14 acres.

Greystone residents who were present Monday night strongly objected to having an auto dealership in Tattersall.

Ronald Ward, a 27-year Greystone resident who served nine years on the Greystone Residential Association board of directors, said an auto dealership would hurt home values in the community.

Trevor Nelson, a Homewood man who grew up in Greystone and whose mother still lives there, said residents don’t want to hear the loudspeakers that usually come with car dealerships, and he believes it would be unsightly.

“We don’t want to drive past a car lot every time we come and go,” he said. “We want something that will add value.”

Other residents said it’s not a good idea to put an auto dealership right across the street from the Ardent Preschool and Day Care in Tattersall or next to the Somerby at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen senior living community across Greystone Way.

Ebsco also was asking to allow for the development’s main signs along U.S. 280 and Alabama 119 to be taller and bigger.

Bill Morris, a Greystone resident who owns the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store on U.S. 280, next to Tattersall, said he had to spend an extra $500,000 to meet the strict development requirements associated with being in that area. No exceptions were made for him, and he doesn’t think it’s fair to lower the standards for others, he said.

Councilman Mike Shaw, a member of the zoning board, said what Ebsco was seeking was a fundamental change in the character of the zoning plan. With the way much of the property already is developed, the only place left to put an auto dealership is right up next to the neighborhood.

He’s more interested in having a transition between that kind of commercial use and neighborhoods, and city officials have to consider how it would affect the health, safety and welfare of the community, he said.

“The way this works out is insane,” he said. “You’ve put it right next to a housing development. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Shaw said the zoning history of the Tattersall property is unfortunate. Previous development plans didn’t materialize. More recent efforts to allow commercial development but with restrictions and controls have been an improvement, but the changes requested by Ebsco Monday night would be a significant step backward, he said.

City Administrator Allan Rice, the mayor’s primary representative on the zoning board, said every time a major proposal such as this comes up that affects the eastern part of Hoover, the city administration reaches out to neighborhood leaders in that area to gauge the reaction.

Initially, while nobody led a parade in support of Ebsco’s request, the city administration was not hearing the vigorous opposition it has more recently heard, he said.

He hopes people understand that the eastern part of Hoover is not being ignored, he said.

Brooks Knapp, a vice president for Ebsco, declined to comment about the zoning board’s decision.

In other business Monday night, the Hoover Planning an Zoning Commission:

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