Hoover zoning board recommends approval for grocery store zoning on South Shades Crest
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight recommended rezoning about 5.5 acres at the intersection of South Shades Crest Road and Morgan Road to make way for a retail center with a grocery store.
RealtyLink Investments wants to combine 5.5 acres currently zoned for agricultural use in Jefferson County with about 10 acres zoned as a community business district in Hoover to accommodate the new development, said Jeff Werszner, the company’s vice president for development.
The property is in the southeast corner of the intersection of South Shades Crest Road and Morgan Road.
Werszner said he was not at liberty to release the name of the proposed grocery store, but plans submitted to the city of Hoover show a 48,000-square-foot grocery, a 4,000-square-foot separate retail building and two outparcels.
Plans submitted to the city show two access points on South Shades Crest Road and one on Morgan Road.
The 10 acres are already in the city of Hoover, and the property owner is seeking to get the additional 5.5 acres annexed into Hoover. But the property owner and developer first want to get all the land zoned for commercial use.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend the requested rezoning tonight, and now the request moves on to the Hoover City Council.
In other business tonight, the Planning and Zoning Commission heard significant opposition from numerous residents of the Inverness Cove community about a proposal to make most of the streets in their neighborhood one-way streets.
The Inverness Cove Residential Association sought the change in an effort to solve a problem of too many people parking on both sides of the street, making traffic flow difficult. But numerous residents tonight spoke against the plan and said it wouldn’t really solve the problem.
Residents said they’ve been having trouble with people parking on both sides of the street for a long time. The streets in the 190-home community are so narrow that it frequently is difficult to move down the street and back out of driveways, residents said.
Parking on the street is against the covenants in their neighborhood, but those covenants are ignored, and people park bumper to bumper, corner to corner, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, resident Kim Pennington said.
The residential association hired Gonzalez Strength & Associates to come up with a solution, and the consultant recommended turning most streets in the community into one-way streets and allowing parking on one side of the street only, with 104 striped parking spaces.
But residents tonight told the planning commission that the residential association didn’t inform residents about the one-way street proposal, and numerous residents said they’re unhappy with the plan. The only way they found out about it was the notice they received from the city about tonight’s meeting, they said.
Pennington said painting arrows on the street and erecting signs isn’t going to keep people from parking on both sides of the streets. “The only plan that’s going to work is to get people to park in their driveways,” she said.
Some people will park in the street when their driveway is empty, and their garage is full of other belongings, she said.
Resident Bruce Bodner asked where all those other cars that currently park on the other side of the streets are going to go. There is not enough off-street parking to accommodate them all, he said.
Resident Pat Chumbley said turning the streets into one-way streets will destroy the suburban character of the neighborhood, giving it more of an inner-city feel. Another resident said it’s unsightly to have cars even on one side of the street, and he doesn’t think it’s right for people to park in front of his house.
Bodner noted that the residential association is set to have it annual meeting later this week and suggested the planning commission vote be continued to give residents more time to discuss the issue.
Planning Commission Chairman Mike Wood agreed and said it’s better if residents, rather than the planning commission, try to come up with a compromise solution. Wood said the commission would take up the issue again on May 13.
In other business, the commission:
- Postponed consideration of a request to rezone property at the intersection of Park Avenue and Valley Street in Bluff Park from single-family residential use to a community business district to accommodate a set of shops or a restaurant. That proposal also was rescheduled for consideration on May 13.
- Recommended the City Council give approval to allow the new Wild Roast coffee shop at 585 Shades Crest Road to host ticketed and private events, such as reception and live entertainment between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
- Recommended the City Council rezone more than an acre at 2016 Shannon Road from a Jefferson County R-6 mobile home district to a Hoover C-1 neighborhood shopping district to allow for a commercial development. The property is at the northwest corner of Ross Bridge Parkway and Shannon Road, and the owner is seeking for it to be annexed into Hoover.
- Recommended the council rezone recently annexed homes at 2253 Chapel Hill Road and 2384 Farley Road and property at 4764 Wineridge Lane for single-family residential use.
- Recommended the council rezone a recently annexed .25-acre parcel at 4909 Coshatt Drive from a Jefferson County agricultural district to a Hoover E-2 single-family estate district.
- Recommended the council rezone the Hoover school system’s new Riverchase Career Connection Center from a Shelby County E-1 district to a Hoover single-family residential district, with the understanding the property will be used as a career technical center.
This article was updated at 9:57 p.m. with more information about the proposal to turn most streets in Inverness Cove into one-way streets.