Hoover zoning board tables Trace Crossings amendments again due to opposition
U.S. Steel once again met stiff opposition tonight to its request to rezone land in the Trace Crossings community for commercial development.
A contingent of Trace Crossings residents showed up at tonight’s meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission to fight the idea and was able to get the proposal tabled a second time.
Jonathan Belcher, the president of Signature Homes, which is working with U.S. Steel and the city of Hoover on a zoning amendment with a lot of changes to the community’s master plan, spelled out the details of the plan that have developed since they first came to the zoning board in October.
But residents are still upset that restrictions the city had proposed for commercial property have been “significantly watered down” in a counter-proposal by U.S. Steel, said Molly McGregor, a Trace Crossings resident.
U.S. Steel is trying to get 114 acres along Stadium Trace Parkway across from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium rezoned from industrial to commercial and residential use.
About half the property already will allow commercial development, but the other half is in a “restricted industrial” zone that only allows for light industrial uses, Hoover planning consultant Bob House said.
The latest plan would put up to 80 houses on the 69 acres closest to the Chestnut Ridge community (with a buffer of at least 255 feet between the two communities) and have 45 acres of commercial land along Stadium Trace.
Many Trace Crossings residents have objected to any commercial development that deep into Trace Crossings, saying it belongs along John Hawkins Parkway instead. There are nearly 100 empty storefronts along John Hawkins Parkway and Lorna Road between South Shades Crest Road and Old Rocky Ridge Road, resident Nancy Carr said. The city should focus on filling those storefronts instead of adding more commercial development in the middle of Trace Crossings, she said.
Residents said they feel safe in Trace Crossings now but believe that putting a hotel across from the Hoover Met will create a less stable environment in the neighborhood.
“You never know who’s going to be coming around hotels,” resident Sheila Goodwin said.
Carr said the city would do better to help fill up the existing hotels along John Hawkins Parkway, which she said have occupancy rates of about 70 to 75 percent now.
The zoning board has a responsibility to protect the residents of Hoover, McGregor said. If the city must approve some type of retail development along Stadium Trace Parkway, it should at least make sure there are appropriate restrictions in place or wait until U.S. Steel presents more definite plans of its intentions, she and others said.
“We do not know what U.S. Steel’s intentions are, and we are fearful of that,” Carr said.
The city proposed restrictions that would prohibit auto dealerships, building material sales, domestic equipment rental, hospitals, car washes, drive-through restaurants and gasoline stations that include automotive repair functions.
The city also wanted to limit building heights to three stories, limit access to Stadium Trace Parkway and require the size, style and illumination of signs to be approved by the city.
City officials also sought to incorporate a village design to the commercial development, with buildings in clusters that front pedestrian-friendly internal streets and plazas. The city’s proposal also called for brick exterior walls visible from off the premises and residential-style pitched roofs with shingles, but U.S. Steel did not agree with all of the restrictions and submitted a counter-proposal.
The counter-proposal would have prohibited automotive service establishments but allowed gasoline stations, drive-through restaurants and neighborhood hardware stores with “conditional use” approval from the city.
The counter-proposal also removed the pitched roof and brick exterior wall requirements but kept in place limitations on access to Stadium Trace Parkway and maximum heights for light fixtures. U.S. Steel’s counter-proposal also would have allowed buildings up to four stories tall if at least 300 feet away from a residential district.
McGregor said the counter-proposal was not enough. “We can’t ruin this neighborhood. It’s one of the best in town,” she said.
Zoning board Chairman Mike Wood asked Belcher and U.S. Steel’s real estate director for Alabama, Billy Silver, if they could agree to require conditional use approval for hotels, and they said that’s not something to which they could agree tonight.
Belcher asked that the zoning case be continued again to allow more time for conversations with residents and the zoning board obliged, continuing the case until April 5.
Trace Crossings resident Debbie Sanders said she was glad to get the continuance because residents want to have a better idea of what is going to go on the property.
“I don’t think Hoover neighborhoods should have to have a pig in a poke,” she said.
Numerous residents complained during the meeting that while Signature Homes has been willing to meet with residents to try to develop a compromise plan, U.S. Steel has not been willing to meet with them.
Silver said after tonight’s meeting that U.S. Steel has tried to work with the neighborhood from the beginning, taking its initial plans to the neighborhood many months ago. After tense words at the last public hearing, U.S. Steel has relied on Signature Homes to handle negotiations, he said.
U.S. Steel believes the latest proposal is much improved from the original proposal and provides much more undeveloped park land than originally proposed, Silver said. U.S. Steel also is very open to the idea of a village-like development that is pedestrian-friendly, much like Ross Bridge and The Preserve, he said.
He believes the company will be able to reach a compromise with residents and city officials, he said.
The commercial zoning is only one part of the proposed 11th amendment to the Trace Crossings development plan. The proposed amendment also would:
- Allow Signature Homes to build 421 more houses in Trace Crossings, including 80 houses that would serve as a buffer between the commercial development and Chestnut Ridge and 341 more houses, primarily on land between the city’s $80 million sports complex and the Cahaba River. Belcher and Hoover’s city administrator, Allan Rice, have emphasized that those houses already have been approved in the master plan for U.S. Steel land holdings. Two hundred and eighty of the houses would be reallocated from U.S. Steel property south of Shelby County 52, and 141 of them would come from houses already approved for the Blackridge development.
- Allow a new layout for the sports fields to be built next to the Hoover Met. This will prevent the city from having to relocate a petroleum pipeline, thereby saving several million dollars, Rice said.
- Allow for the construction of a new road between Hoover High School and Bumpus Middle School, providing a second way to access both schools. A third access road to Stadium Trace Parkway also is planned to be built between Trace Crossings and the sports complex.
- Include a donation from Signature Homes to the city of Hoover of about 120 acres for a passive park along the Cahaba River and about 38 acres for use with the sports park.
- Rezone 51 acres at the intersection of South Shades Crest Road and Brock’s Gap Parkway from industrial use to residential use, with the understanding that it only be used as a common area (woods and perhaps trails) and not developed for houses. Ownership of that land would be transferred to the Trace Crossings Residential Association.
- Rezone 73 acres along Stadium Trace Parkway across from the Lake Wilborn community from industrial and commercial use to residential use, also with the understanding that it only be used as a common area with woods and perhaps trails. That parcel likely would be conveyed to the city, Belcher said.
In other business tonight, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission:
- Approved preliminary plans for 35 houses in the third and fourth phases of the Glasscott sector of Ross Bridge. Belcher said the houses would be similar to others in Glasscott (140- to 150-foot-wide lots and homes ranging from the $700,000s to more than $1 million). Clearing should begin in about 90 days, he said.
- Approved final plans for 40 townhouses in the Village Center at Ross Bridge in an area to be known as Taylor’s Court. The townhouses will be 2,300 to 2,500 square feet and likely cost $275,000 to $325,000, Belcher said. Construction on the first building should start in about 30 days, he said. The lots went up for sale on March 4, and 15 contracts already have been written, he said.
- Approved final plans to divide the lot that now contains the Days Inn at 1800 Riverchase Drive into two lots. The owner plans to tear down the half of the hotel that is next to John Hawkins Parkway and put in a restaurant and retail business, Assistant City Engineer Chris Reeves said.
- Recommended the City Council approve a Dave & Buster’s restaurant, sports bar and game facility at the Riverchase Galleria.
- Recommended the City Council rezone property at 3219 Lorna Road from a neighborhood shopping district to a community business district to allow the Blue Pacific Thai restaurant there to become a full-service sit-down restaurant and apply for a license to serve alcoholic beverages.