Some residents concerned Star Lake 'improvements' have created safety hazard
Some residents of the Green Valley community complained to the Hoover City Council Monday night that recent “improvements” at Star Lake have created a safety hazard.
For several years, the city worked on plans to improve the small city park there, including creating one-way traffic around the lake, replacing the existing sidewalk around the lake with a wider one, increasing the number of parking spaces and adding lights.
However, once the city sought bids for doing the project last year, all the bids came in far over the $375,000 budget, City Administrator Allan Rice said. So city officials began looking for ways to do some of the work with city workers to reduce costs.
The project also got scaled back from the original design, both due to cost and feedback from the community, Rice said.
The road was indeed turned into a one-way loop around the lake, but new parallel parking spaces around the lake were moved from the inside of the loop — closest to the lake — to the outside of the loop.
This allowed for a bicycle lane right next to the sidewalk, but it requires people parking along the road to cross traffic to get to the sidewalk and park.
That’s a dangerous situation, especially with so many people with young children coming to visit the lake and park, some residents told the City Council Monday night.
As people get in and out of vehicles, other vehicles driving by are moving into the bicycle lane to pass them, leaving kids and others riding bikes or even walking in the bike lane at risk, said Jari Bailey, who lives right by the park.
People riding bicycles or walking in the bike lane have a false sense of security with that white line drawn on the pavement, residents said.
“My biggest concern is that there will be a death there,” Bailey said. “That’s what’s going to happen. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.”
She and her boyfriend also said residents who live right by the lake don’t like having people park right in front of their homes.
The city took an area that had 12 parking spaces diagonal to Star Lake Drive and converted it into two parallel handicapped parking spaces, requiring everyone else to park in new parallel parking spaces along Star Lake Drive — directly in front of homes.
The original plan had 36 parallel parking spaces around the loop road, but most of those were cut out, Rice said. And they were moved to the side of the street opposite from the lake to allow for the bike lane and because some residents said they didn’t want people parking right up against the sidewalk, he said.
All the new parking spaces are in the public right of way, Rice said. However, city officials are reevaluating the old parking area to see if it can be restriped with angled parking spaces instead of parallel spaces so four to six more parking spaces can be put back there, Rice said. That might enable the city to remove some of the new parallel parking spaces directly in front of homes, he said.
Council President Gene Smith asked whether the speed limit around the lake could be reduced to make the area safer.
Bill Richardson, another resident by the lake, suggested speed humps might discourage people from using that route as much. Rice said the city might be able to limit overnight parking as well — another problem that was mentioned.
Bob Daniel, who lives right by the park, wasn’t at Monday night’s meeting but said he thinks the new one-way street helps make the park safer but said city officials probably should have put more thought into the parking changes.
Councilman Mike Shaw said most of the issues being raised seem solvable but are outside the scope of the City Council. He suggested residents work with the mayor and his staff to address their concerns.
Bailey said she hopes these issues don’t get overlooked. She was upset that city officials made changes to the design without first informing residents and getting more feedback.
In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:
- Amended an economic development agreement with Harden Properties concerning the redevelopment of Bluff Park Village to provide a rebate to the developer for any construction-related building permit fees incurred during redevelopment. Rice said those rebates are expected to total about $43,000 and were agreed upon during negotiations with the developer but left out of the final paperwork.
- Authorized the mayor to fill five of nine full-time firefighter vacancies and one full-time administrative assistant position in the city clerk’s office.
- Approved licenses to sell alcoholic beverages for the new Moe’s Original BBQ in The Village at Brock’s Gap shopping center at 1031 Brock’s Gap Parkway and the Cajun Steamer restaurant at 180 Main St. in the Patton Creek shopping center.
- Authorized the mayor to enter into an agreement with Stericycle for the company to dispose of the Hoover Fire Department’s unused and expired medications.
- Authorized the Birmingham Water Works to install four fire hydrants at the Harmony at Riverchase assisted living development at 2171 Parkway Lake Drive.
- Vacated part of a utility right of way to allow Jeremy Tickle to build a privacy fence required between the Greystone Golf and Country Club Founders Course and a pool at his residence at 5246 Greystone Way.
- Set a public hearing for Oct. 19 to consider a request to allow a Hindu temple to use the former AMC discount movie theater at 3604 Lorna Ridge Drive and 2122 Lorna Ridge Lane as a worship center.
- Set a public hearing for Oct. 19 to consider a request to rezone two parcels of land off Kleins Drive in Bluff Park from agricultural use to make way for a new 44-house subdivision off Savoy Street on part of the old Smith Farm property.
- Set a public hearing for Oct. 19 to revise plans for a new 53-acre Village Center across Stadium Trace Parkway from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, allowing Signature Homes to separate the commercial area from the residential area and increase the number of homes on this particular tract from 74 to 118. The additional home sites already have been approved for Trace Crossings but not specified to go in a particular place.
- Set a public hearing for Oct. 19 to consider an amendment to the city’s zoning ordinance to allow brewpubs and breweries to locate in community business, general business, planned commercial, light industrial and planned urban development districts.
- Set a public hearing for Oct. 19 to consider the rezoning of three pieces of property at 389 Park Ave., 2201 Pioneer Drive and 2108 Chapel Road from an E-2 estate district to a new Legacy Single-family District and rezoning of property at 435 Park Ave. from an R-1 single-family residential district to a new Legacy Single-family District. The new district gives property owners more leeway in setbacks and opportunities to build or expand unenclosed but covered front porches, City Planner Mac Martin said.