Hoover zoning board recommends 44 new apartments in International Park
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight recommended the City Council rezone about 11 acres in International Park to accommodate a mixed-use apartment and commercial development.
However, the zoning board delayed consideration of a rezoning plan for the Tattersall Park development near the intersection of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119 until Thursday night.
In International Park, Rime Construction Co. is seeking permission to construct a building with 60,000 to 70,000 square feet off Acton Road with 44 apartments on the top two floors and commercial businesses on the bottom floor, owner Irving Meisler said.
The entrance would be just south of the BeKare Child Development Center, and the apartments would be “high-end” and have only one or two bedrooms, Meisler said.
He believes it is an ideal site for such a development because of the close proximity to Interstate 459 and Interstate 65, Grandview Hospital and medical offices in the area, he said.
He envisions restaurants and offices in the commercial space on the first floor, he said. The apartments would have enclosed, air-conditioned corridors and a state-of-the-art security system, he said.
To move forward with the development, Rime Construction needs the property rezoned from planned office use to planned commercial use and to get “conditional use” approval for “mixed use development” with apartments on the top two floors of the building.
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend the City Council approve the rezoning.
Councilman Mike Shaw, who also sits on the Planning and Zoning Commission, said the city needs to make sure people understand what “mixed use” means. He’s not sure people understand that could include a residential component, and said “we need to make sure this process is transparent.”
Meisler said his company owns an adjacent lot to the southwest that also is in International Park that he later expects to develop for office use. There likely will be a connection between the two lots so that traffic from the apartment development can reach International Park Drive and have two ways to reach Acton Road, he said.
The first entrance near BeKare Child Development Center will not create enough traffic to merit a traffic signal, he said. However, the plan does call for a sidewalk along Acton Road that connects with International Park Drive.
Tattersall Park
The Planning and Zoning Commission tonight also considered but did not approve a development plan for the Tattersall Park development near the intersection of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119.
Ebsco Industries, the owner of the undeveloped land at the northeast corner of that intersection, is seeking to get the remaining 63 undeveloped acres of Tattersall Park rezoned to a Planned Unit Development with commercial zoning.
Plans submitted to the city tonight show a grocery store not far from U.S. 280 but do not name the grocery store. The plans also show several outparcels and a large open area but give no indication of what might go there.
Ebsco at one point proposed 250 apartments on the site, but the Greystone Residential Association opposed the apartments.
Steve Monk, an attorney representing Ebsco, tonight said the company has no plans at this time to pursue residential development on the site. If Ebsco changed its mind and decided to pursue residential development again, the company would have to come back to the city to get such approval, he and City Planner Mac Martin said.
Neal Sewell, a resident of the Greystone Ridge community near Tattersall Park, said people in his community are greatly concerned about what will go in Tattersall Park. Their greatest concern is the traffic it will generate, but they also are concerned about lights, sewage treatment and the kinds of businesses that are proposed, he said.
Monk saw the developer will pay to build a sewage pump station and turn it over to Southwest Water, which runs the sewer system in that area.
Regarding traffic, Monk said Ebsco has committed to install a traffic signal where Alabama 119 intersects with a new road called Tattersall Park Drive when the Alabama Department of Transportation determines that a traffic signal is warranted.
Ebsco also is committed to add a right turn lane on Greystone Way, coming from Alabama 119 and turning right onto Tattersall Boulevard, when Tattersall Boulevard is widened to four lanes, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, Monk said.
Martin said the Alabama Department of Transportation will not allow a traffic signal where Tattersall Boulevard feeds directly onto U.S. 280 because it is too close to the traffic signals at Alabama 119 and Hugh Daniel Drive. Instead, the plan there is to have traffic going into Tattersall and coming out of Tattersall to turn right only at that intersection, Martin said. There will be no left turns onto U.S. 280 or into the Tattersall Park development directly from U.S. 280, he said.
Planning commissioners did not vote on the Tattersall Park proposal tonight, saying they needed more time to review it.
Ebsco has been in talks with the current city administration about Tattersall Park for about 18 months, City Administrator Allan Rice said. There have been about a dozen different drafts of the rezoning plan, and Ebsco submitted its latest revision about 30 minutes before tonight’s meeting. Several planning commissioners said they needed more time to review it.
Because Ebsco has some timelines to meet with one of the proposed tenants, the zoning board agreed to call a special meeting for 7 p.m. this Thursday night, May 17, to consider the Tattersall Park proposal.
In other business tonight, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission:
- Approved preliminary plans for 100 houses in the new Abingdon section of Trace Crossings, along Stadium Trace Parkway across from Flemming Parkway.
- Approved final plans for 42 residential lots in Phase 1C of the Blackridge community at the end of Stadium Trace Parkway
- Approved final plans for 35 residential lots in Phase 2B of the Lake Wilborn section of Trace Crossings, south of Bumpus Middle School.
- Approved final plans for 20 more residential lots at the end of the Glasscott Crossing section of Ross Bridge.
- Recommended the Hoover City Council rezone 2.4 acres in Trace Crossings at the end of Feldspar Way from planned single-family use to planned industrial use. The property originally was zoned for planned industrial use but was rezoned for single-family use in June of last year. Rice said city officials originally thought they needed the property for the Hoover Metropolitan Complex expansion but later determined they did not, so it remained with Signature Homes.
- Approved a resurvey of a lot in the Heatherwood community at 4909 Coshatt Drive to divide one lot into two so they both can be developed for houses. The property is owned by Craig and Kimberley Philpot and zoned as an E-2 single-family estate district.
- Approved a resurvey of a lot in the Glen Estates section of the Greystone community to divide one lot into two. The property is owned by Dale Baggett and zoned as a PR-1 planned single-family district.
- Approved a resurvey of property at 1540 Holly Road to subdivide eight lots into two lots. The property is owned by Debra and Richard Richard and zoned as an R-1 single-family residential district.
- Approved a resurvey of property at 705 Valley Street in Bluff Park to combine two lots into one. The property is owned by Glenn Barton and zoned as an R-1 single-family residential district.