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Rendering by Black Design Archit
Brocks Gap Brewing Co 1
Trace Crossings resident Jamie Cato wants to build a two-story brewery with a tap room and live indoor and outdoor entertainment on property along Stadium Trace Parkway, right next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama.
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Sketch provided by city of Hoove
201012_Brocks_Gap_Brewing_Co3
Trace Crossings resident Jamie Cato wants to build a two-story brewery with a tap room and live indoor and outdoor entertainment on property along Stadium Trace Parkway, right next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama. The brewery property is shown in dark blue, with the stadium to the right.
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Rendering by Black Design Archit
Brocks Gap Brewing Co 3
Trace Crossings resident Jamie Cato wants to build a two-story brewery with a tap room and live indoor and outdoor entertainment on property along Stadium Trace Parkway, right next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama.
A Trace Crossings resident is seeking permission to put a brewery with a tap room and indoor and outdoor live entertainment on property next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night voted to recommend the City Council allow the development.
Trace Crossings resident Jamie Cato said he wants to put the two-story Brock’s Gap Brewing Co. with a tap room at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Mineral Trace, right by the main entrance to the Hoover Met Stadium.
This is his first venture into the brewery business but plans to bring some world-class beer and quality events to the city of Hoover, he said. His brewmaster is Brian Watson, whom he said owns about 17 breweries and has won more than 100 international beer awards.
Several planning commissioners spoke in favor of the idea of a brewery on the site, which is zoned for “planned light industrial use,” but some expressed concerns about live and amplified outdoor entertainment being so close to residential neighborhoods, such as Abingdon, a new development planned across the parkway from the stadium in the Trace Crossings Village Center, and Chestnut Ridge on the hill above the Village Center.
“That sound carries a long, long distance,” planning commissioner Carl West said.
West said he was in favor of allowing the brewery with a tap room there, but noted that Abingdon is a neighborhood for people age 55 and older.
“I’m not trying to kill your project. I love it,” West said. “But we need to be smart about this. I think it’s going to be a potential problem.”
City Planner Mac Martin noted that the nearest residential property in Abingdon is more than 500 feet away from the area where outdoor music would be and that there is some tree buffer along Stadium Trace Parkway. Also, Brock’s Gap Brewing Co. plans to have the outdoor music performances on the loading dock at the back of the brewery, which is on the opposite side of the building from Stadium Trace Parkway. That should help with buffering the noise some, Martin said.
Cato agreed to limit the outdoor events to no more than two times per month, to cut off amplified outdoor music by 10 p.m. and all outdoor music by 11 p.m. Also, performances with amplified music would be limited to Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, holidays and special events.
Indoor live performances would be more regular but would be smaller acts, not big bands, Cato said.
Cato also agreed to hire off-duty Hoover police officers to provide security for outdoor events.
The planning commission also agreed to waive the requirement for a sidewalk along Stadium Trace Parkway because of topography of the site and instead wants to require Cato to put a sidewalk connection to the Hoover Met parking lot and a sidewalk leading to Stadium Trace Parkway at a traffic light that is to be installed at the main vehicle entrance to the Met.
Pedestrians would be able to cross Stadium Trace Parkway safely there to get to a sidewalk and commercial and residential developments across from the Met, Martin said.
Also, the planning commission said Brock’s Gap Brewing Co. would be required to reach an agreement with the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board to use the Hoover Met parking lot as overflow parking for events.
The Hoover City Council is expected to consider the request to allow the brewery, tap room and live entertainment on Nov. 16.
In other business Monday night, the zoning board:
- Recommended the council rezone 1.4 acres at the corner of Lynngate Drive and Lorna Ridge Drive from a preferred commercial district to a town house district to allow for eight town houses to be developed by LAH Commercial Real Estate.
- Recommended the council rezone 4.25 acres that contain the Hoover-Randle Home and Gardens property at 2255 Tyler Road from an R-1 single-family residential use to a special use district, with the understanding that the property only be used as an event facility with similar restrictions that were put in place before the city bought the home from the Randle family.
- Approved preliminary plans for 59 single-family houses on 30 acres in the second phase of the Blackridge South community.
- Approved final plans to convert one single-family residential lot at 305 Park Ave. into two residential lots.
- Postponed consideration of preliminary plans for a 44-house subdivision on the former Smith farm property at 2429 Savoy Street until Nov. 9.
- Postponed consideration of preliminary plans for a 4-lot commercial subdivision off Medford Drive and ATI Parkway until Nov. 9.
- Announced plans to consider amending the city’s comprehensive plan on Nov. 9 to give more detailed plans for a proposed new connector road from Morgan Road to South Shades Crest Road, Interstate 459 and Alabama 150.
