Hoover zoning board OKs plans for homes in Bluff Park, Blackridge, U.S. 280 corridor

The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night approved final plans for 66 new homes in Bluff Park and Blackridge and preliminary plans for 120 townhomes off U.S. 280.

The final plans were for 44 houses in the Smith Farm subdivision in Bluff Park and 22 houses in the sixth phase of Blackridge.

Developer Lance Kitchens is the one who developed the home sites for the Smith Farm subdivision, just north of Savoy Street and east of Sanders Road. Preliminary plans for the first phase of the community were approved in May 2020, and now most of the work in developing the homesites is complete.

The planning commission required Kitchens to post a $395,500 bond to guarantee that remaining infrastructure work gets completed and required him to post a $32,200 bond to make sure that a buffer he planted between his development and surrounding property survives at least a year.

Kitchens said he won’t be the one building the homes. He plans to sell the lots to home builders and expects home prices likely will be in the $650,000 to $750,000 range.

City Planner Mac Martin said it could be challenging to build some contemporary house plans on some of the smaller lots in the curves and cul-de-sacs in the community because some of those lots are not as deep as others. It is possible to build homes on the lots, but they likely would be more the ranch-style homes frequently seen in places such as Green Valley, Martin said.

In Blackridge, the 22 homesites for which final plans were approved are spread out on lots of a variety of sizes, said Bob Easley, an engineer working with Signature Homes on the development.

Blackridge is at the end of Stadium Trace Parkway, just past the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and Lake Wilborn.

Lots along the Cahaba River in the sixth phase of Blackridge vary in size from 3 to 8 acres, while most of the interior lots are closer to about an acre in size, Easley said. One of the homesites along the Cahaba River has 900 feet of river frontage, he said.

The 120 lots for which preliminary plans were approved off U.S. 280 across from the Walmart Supercenter will be in a subdivision to be called Windsor Court. It also is being developed by Signature Homes.