Hoover zoning board recommends approval for PetSuites Resort on John Hawkins Parkway

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The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight, with a split vote, recommended the Hoover City Council approve a plan to put a 14,240-square-foot PetSuites Resort on 2 acres along John Hawkins Parkway.

The business, if approved by the council, would be a pet grooming, nutrition and boarding facility on property between the CVS near Shades Crest Road and the office building holding a UAB medical clinic.

It would have 140 pet suites and could hold up to 182 dogs when dogs from the same family share a suite, according to Mack Johnson, director of development for NVA Pet Resorts.

The zoning board for the past two months held off on voting on the plan, with board members saying they needed more information and asking the developer to continue working to address neighbors’ concerns.

Residents along nearby Pine Rock Lane have expressed concern about noise from barking dogs, the appearance of the facility and odors from pet waste.

Since the August meeting, NVA Pet Resorts backed off its request to use metal siding on three sides of the building and instead agreed to use brick.

The company also conducted an additional noise study on a similar, but larger, facility in Roswell, Georgia, and presented the results of that study tonight.

Charlie Beavers, an attorney for NVA Pet Resorts, said he’s not suggesting that people won’t hear dogs barking from time to time, but the noise study from the facility in Georgia indicated the sound of barking from when dogs were allowed outside during the daytime did not exceed the ambient noise from the rest of the community, such as the traffic on a nearby five-lane road.

No dogs were heard barking, from the outside, once all the dogs were inside for the night, between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., said Gary Behrens of Spectrum Environmental, which conducted the study.

Additionally, the proposed site in Hoover is laid out in such a way that should muffle the noise for nearby neighbors even more so than the site in Roswell, Beavers said. The building in Hoover would be situated between the outside play area and the neighbors, and NVA Pet Resorts proposes to plant evergreens and pines to create a buffer zone, Beavers said. Also, the nearby homes are 12 feet higher than the pet resort, which should help stifle the noise, he said.

“It doesn’t take many animals to create a problem, and it doesn’t take many to create a significant problem,” Shaw said.

While the noise from the dogs during the day might not be louder than the traffic on John Hawkins Parkway, it’s still a different — and potentially annoying — type of sound, he said.

But Shaw — and zoning board members Allan Rice and Carl West — were in the minority.

Four zoning board members — Sammy Harris, Jason Lovoy, Jennifer Peace and Ben Wieseman — voted to recommend approval. Two board members — Nathan Reed and Mike Wood — abstained.

Wieseman said he believed NVA Pet Resorts, after meeting with neighbors and city officials, made a lot of concessions on the property to make it more compatible with the nearby neighborhood. The company changed the layout of the site, added more of a landscape buffer and agreed to use brick instead of metal siding.

Lovoy said he voted to approve the PetSuites Resort because of the amount of investment the company is putting into the property. Beavers said NVA Pet Resorts is spending $3.5 to $4 million to develop the property.

“You’re not going to find somebody else to do that,” Lovoy said. “That property has been sitting vacant forever. I drive by it every day.”

Neighbors have indicated they want to see something go there, though some said they would prefer something other than a dog boarding facility.

Lovoy said it’s unfair to compare a PetSuites Resort with a veterinary clinic regarding noise. Most animals in vet clinics are confined to small cages and don’t want to be that confined, he said. A dog at one of these resorts is in a much better setting, is typically happier and doesn’t yelp like a dog confined at a vet clinic, he said.

He also believed NVA Pet Resorts had made a lot of concessions to make its facility more palatable.

Mark Shows, a resident on Pine Rock Lane, asked the zoning board whether something like this would be accepted next to other communities in Hoover.

“Would this fly in Greystone? Would this fly in Ross Bridge, 75 yards behind your house?” Shows said. “Would you want to live in that neighborhood? I think the answer is no. We want this to go through. We just don’t think it’s the proper place to put it.”

NVA Pet Resorts made a good presentation, “but the bottom line is — you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.”

Beavers said that whatever goes on that site is going to create some kind of noise, and NVA Pet Resorts believes its boarding facility would be less intrusive than some other uses allowed in C-1 commercial zoning, such as a grocery store, a bank with a drive through or some other type of business with a dock and loading area for trucks.

The zoning board recommended the City Council approve the PetSuites Resort with numerous conditions, including:

  • No animals are to be outside after sunset or before sunrise.
  • Landscaping and buffering must be installed as proposed.
  • All lighting shall be cast down to eliminate light pollution to neighbors.
  • Animal waste from the site shall not be permitted to drain into the stormwater sewer or leach into the soil and groundwater. The owner shall implement an underground storage/waste treatment program, approved by the city engineer, to handle pet waste, or the effluent from the play area shall be connected to the sanitary sewer system.
  • The outside garbage disposal bin shall have a roof to help prevent rainwater from getting into pet waste in the bin and draining out.
  • The facility shall operate its proposed odor control and sanitation program.
  • If the city receives complaints about the noise, PetSuites Hoover shall conduct studies, at its own cost, to show the noise generated from the facility does not exceed the ambient noise produced by traffic on John Hawkins Parkway.

In other business tonight, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission:

  • Recommended the council rezone 259 acres owned by the Freshwater Land Trust between Ross Bridge Parkway and Shades Crest Road from Jefferson County industrial and agricultural districts to a Hoover A-1 agricultural district, with the understanding that the property is meant to be preserved as natural space.
  • Recommended the council approve the construction of additional on 1.2 acres at Chase Corporate Center at 1834 Montgomery Highway to service a building now occupied by a St. Vincent’s health clinic, Winonah School of Cosmetology and Pure Barre fitness center.
  • Approved preliminary plans for 49 residential lots in the 11th phase of The Preserve community.
  • Approved final plans for 13 lots in the Stadium Trace Village commercial development at the corner of John Hawkins Parkway and Stadium Trace Parkway.
  • Approved final plans for 80 residential lots in Sector 21 of the Lake Cyrus community along Lake Cyrus Club Drive and next to Interstate 459.
  • Approved final plans for three residential lots in Phase 1D of the Blackridge community at the end of Stadium Trace Parkway.
  • Approved final plans for two lots in the Tattersall Park commercial development along Alabama 119.
  • Approved final plans for a Spine & Sports Properties clinic at 118 Mars Hill Road. The existing medical clinic there now will be razed to make way for the new clinic, City Planner Mac Martin said.
  • Postponed consideration of a request for approval of a neighborhood shopping center at 1801 Doug Baker Blvd. until Oct. 8.