The Hoover City Council has designated a 6-mile-wide area as the city's central business district for economic redevelopment purposes.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night designated a 6-mile-wide area as the city’s central business district for economic redevelopment purposes.
The district, which by state law must be limited to 6 miles in diameter, was recommended by the city’s new Downtown Redevelopment Authority.
It stretches from Ross Bridge and the new Everlee development to roughly along Interstate 65 (going from west to east) and from the former site of Tip Top Grill in Bluff Park to around the Pelham city limits (going from north to south).
It includes Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the Finley Center but not the adjacent Hoover RV Park. It also notably includes part of the Riverchase office park, the office/industrial buildings that Revere Control Systems soon will be vacating along Rocky Ridge Road, all of the Lorna Road area, Shades Mountain Plaza, the Riverchase Galleria, Patton Creek shopping center and pretty much the entirety of the U.S. 31 corridor from I-65 to just short of Valleydale Road.
A downtown redevelopment authority can extend credit to make loans to any person, corporation, partnership or other entity to cover the costs of industrial, commercial, office, parking or residential projects in a 3-mile radius within a city’s central business district, said Greg Knighton, the city’s economic development manager. Projects within that radius can be done in a tax-exempt manner, Knighton said.
Bryan Pate, a member of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority who helped pinpoint the proposed boundaries for the central business district, said he and others at first considered using Costco as the center of the circle because many people consider the Galleria and Patton Creek to be the heart of the city’s business center.
They shifted the center point around to various places to try to get key areas within the 3-mile radius and to minimize the amount of land outside the city that is within the circle, Pate said. The final center point on which they settled is in The Preserve subdivision at the intersection of Preserve Drive and Restoration Drive. But the focus was not so much the center point as the circumference, Pate said.
The goal was to include areas that have potential for redevelopment, Knighton said.
One key area left out is the area around the proposed new Interstate 459 interchange, where the city already owns some undeveloped property and is buying more to make the interchange a reality, Pate said.
However, City Attorney Phillip Corley noted the city’s Industrial Development Board and new Commercial Development Authority can do projects outside the 3-mile radius.
In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:
- Amended the city’s 2022 budget to include $125,000 for emergency repairs to Grove Boulevard, where a sinkhole has developed in the road about 450 feet from Preserve Parkway.
- Amended the city’s 2022 budget to include an additional $1,239,000 to cover higher-than-expected costs for a sidewalk extension on Chapel Road. The state will reimburse the city for $1,114,000 of the additional cost, but the city will pay $125,000 more than originally estimated, City Administrator Allan Rice said.
- Authorized Mayor Frank Brocato to sign a multi-party settlement agreement reached by the state of Alabama with Endo Health Solutions and Endo Pharmaceuticals regarding alleged damages created by what the city deems unlawful distribution of prescription opioids and to authorize the mayor to sign any future settlements reached with McKesson, J&J and other defendants involved in the same pending litigation. The details of the allocation of settlement funds still has not been finalized, according to the resolution approved by the council.
- Added two addresses — 4834 and 4856 Sulphur Springs Road — to a stormwater pipe repair project that could bleed over onto those properties.
- Honored three teams from Spain Park HIgh School that won state championships recently — the girls golf team, girls soccer team and a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate esports team.
