Saving Brock’s Gap: Developer thinks historic railbed can be mostly preserved
A developer whose company owns a 150-year-old historic railbed said he believes it’s possible for the city of Hoover to build a new proposed 4-mile parkway in western Hoover without destroying the bulk of the historic site.
But, there are still some unknown factors that will help determine whether the parkway ever gets built, where it could be built and how it would impact the historical site, Signature Homes President Jonathan Belcher said.
The site in question is a former railbed known as the Brock’s Gap cut that stretches about a mile between the entrance to the Blackridge subdivision on Stadium Trace Parkway and a point just north of South Shades Crest Road.
The Brock’s Gap cut runs through Shades Mountain, Pine Mountain and Chestnut Ridge and was completed in November 1871, making way for the final stretch of railroad that led to the incorporation of Birmingham a month later. It allowed trains to get through the mountains and gave easier access to and from the mineral-rich terrain in central Alabama.
Members of the Birmingham Historical Society became alarmed when they learned the city of Hoover wanted to build a new parkway through that area, fearing the historical pathway would be obliterated.
SB Development, a company affiliated with Signature Homes, owns a 73-acre piece of land that contains the entire Brock’s Gap cut, Belcher said. The property is adjacent to Hoover, but currently is outside the city limits in unincorporated parts of Jefferson and Shelby counties, he said.
However, his company has committed to donate the right of way to the city for a parkway city officials say is needed to help relieve traffic congestion in western Hoover.
Limited impact
His company sees the Brock’s Gap cut as an amenity and doesn’t want to see it destroyed either, he said. He believes the city can build the proposed parkway without destroying the cut, but there will need to be some compromises, he said.
“Sections of it [the Brock’s Gap cut] are going to have to be modified,” Belcher said. Based on his preliminary assessment of the topography, “I think you can limit your impact to just two to three places.”
But, there still are some unknown factors. First, the parkway won’t happen unless the city gets a commitment from the federal government to build a new Interstate 459 interchange that connects with South Shades Crest Road, Belcher said.
Then, the parkway’s impact on the northern part of the Brock’s Gap cut will depend on where the parkway connects with South Shades Crest Road, Belcher said.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice has said the city likely won’t spend money on engineering for the parkway until the interstate interchange is more certain.
Belcher said he has done some preliminary assessment of the 73 acres his company owns and could see the parkway going through the middle of his property, staying away from the Brock’s Gap cut for the most part until it needs to cross it.
Signature Homes wants to use the Brock’s Gap cut as a pedestrian pathway to help connect Ross Bridge and the Everlee community to 10 miles of mountain bike trails his company built in Trace Crossings, and eventually to historic coke ovens across the Cahaba River in Helena, Belcher said.
“For us, that old railbed will serve as a great connector trail that’s already built, so we like having that there,” he said. “It enhances the communities we create.”
The existing road going through part of the Brock’s Gap cut is a beautiful road with 70-foot hardwoods on both sides of it and currently is being used as an entrance to the Brock’s Gap Training Center and access road for emergency vehicles to get to Signature Homes’ Blackridge development, Belcher said.
His company bought the 73 acres that contain the Brock’s Gap cut primarily for the emergency access until a new fire station could be built to serve Lake Wilborn and Blackridge, he said.
His company has already filled in a couple hundred feet of the Brock’s Gap cut near Blackridge so fire trucks would have no more than a 15% grade to access Stadium Trace Parkway, he said. “We did it for safety reasons.”
Another factor affecting the layout of the parkway is whether the Brock’s Gap Training Center is willing to sell its 110 acres to make way for the rest of the parkway, Belcher said.
“Them being willing to sell allows a lot more flexibility for the parkway and gives you a lot more opportunity to avoid the existing railbed that’s there,” he said.
Property rights
Belcher said he believes his company’s goals, for the most part, align with those of the Birmingham Historical Society, but he was frustrated with actions of one of the society’s board members.
I’m going to continue to create this pedestrian connection through there. And, of course, we want to preserve things that have significant historical relevance to it.
Jonathan Belcher
Board member Birgit Kibelka tried to arrange a visit to the cut with Belcher in March, but Belcher postponed the visit, saying he wanted to wait until he had more information about potential parkway connections. Kibelka took some people to see the cut without him, and Belcher considered that trespassing. He said his company owns the property and he is concerned, from a liability perspective, about people being out there without him present. “It’s not really safe,” he said. “If anybody’s going to go out there, it needs to be with me.”
Kibelka tried to arrange another visit in May, inviting more people, and was served with legal papers to stay off the property. She showed up at the entrance to SB Development’s property on the day the visit was planned but told the Hoover Sun she was there only to let others who might show up know that the visit had been canceled. “He did not want us there. It was very clear,” she said.
Kibelka admitted to trespassing on one occasion but said she doesn’t understand why Belcher was so adamant about not allowing people to visit.
She’s glad to hear he believes most of the cut can be saved, she said. “That’s really good news. That’s what we were hoping for.”
She will be eager to see more specifics and hopes that the Hoover City Council and city planner are able to see the cut in person to better understand its significance, she said.
Belcher said he could have already destroyed the cut if he wanted.
“If I wanted to tear it up, I could come up with plenty of reasons to tear it up, could make it 10 feet wide to put fire trucks through there,” he said. “I could justify that … but I’m not going to do that.
“She expects me to honor what she believes are rights to preserve history, but she doesn’t honor my rights as a property owner,” Belcher said. “Property rights are pretty important in our history, and yet I guess that’s the one part that’s not important to them. … It’s hard to work with somebody that doesn’t respect your wishes.”
Striking a balance
Belcher said a balance must be struck between preserving history and serving the needs of people here today.
The parkway connection from Morgan Road will help take half the traffic off Stadium Trace Parkway, relieve traffic off South Shades Crest Road and give quicker access to Interstate 459 for people in Hoover, Helena and other parts of western Shelby County, Belcher said.
It also will provide access to land that could be an employment center for science, technology, engineering and math-related companies the city would like to recruit and help grow, he said.
Between the 73 acres owned by SB Development, the 160 acres SB Development donated to the city of Hoover and 110 acres owned by the Brock’s Gap Training Center, there likely would be about 160 usable acres left for economic development after the parkway is built, Belcher said. Even though the land is more linear, that’s bigger than the Riverchase Galleria campus, he said.
Keeping the Brock’s Gap cut mostly intact will add to the value of the developments, he said.
“I’m going to continue to create this pedestrian connection through there,” he said. “And, of course, we want to preserve things that have significant historical relevance to it.”