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Still shot from Goldfish Swim School YouTube video
The Goldfish Swim School wants to open a location in The Grove shopping center in Hoover, Alabama.
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Still shot from Goldfish Swim School YouTube video
The Goldfish Swim School wants to open a location in The Grove shopping center in Hoover, Alabama.
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Still shot from Goldfish Swim School YouTube video
The Goldfish Swim School wants to open a location in The Grove shopping center in Hoover, Alabama.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
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Axe House Billiards is preparing to open in the Hoover Court shopping center at 1901 Hoover Court B in the former location of the All-American Outdoors store.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
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Lorna Road Properties and IRA Holdings are seeking permission to open a used car dealership called Birmingham Luxury Motors at 2970 Lorna Road in Hoover, Alabama. The location has had multiple uses in the past, including a car dealership, home health company and college.
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Map courtesy of city of Hoover
Bham Luxuxy Motors map
Lorna Road Properties and IRA Holdings are seeking permission to open a used car dealership called Birmingham Luxury Motors at 2970 Lorna Road in Hoover, Alabama. The location has had multiple uses in the past, including a car dealership, home health company and college.
The Hoover zoning board on Monday night recommended the City Council approve a new swim school, billiard hall and used car dealership, all with certain conditions.
The Goldfish Swim School is proposed to be built in an existing vacant space in The Grove shopping center at 5549 Grove Boulevard, right next to Target, City Planner Mac Martin said.
The Goldfish Swim School is a national company that teaches children ages 4 months to 12 years old how to swim in an indoor heated pool. There are 140 locations of the Goldfish Swim School in 34 states, Washington, D.C. and Ontario, Canada, according to the company’s website.
The zoning board recommended approval of the project with the condition that all pools comply with pool safety standards and any excavation or blasting be approved by the Hoover fire, engineering and building departments, Martin said.
The applicant indicated he might need to remove 30 inches of rock while digging to build the pool, Martin said.
The zoning board also recommended the council approve Hoover resident Janet Arledge’s request to allow a billiard hall in the Hoover Court shopping center off U.S. 31. She wants to put the pool hall in almost 7,000 square feet in the northernmost part of the shopping center next to Braddock Drive, she said.
The spot at 1901 Hoover Court B formerly was home to a gun store called All-American Outdoors and, before that, Tidmore Flags, Arledge said. It’s right next to the Jefferson County Revenue Department’s Hoover office and above the Steel City Emergency Vets clinic.
Arledge said she had 10 new Diamond pool tables delivered this past week and plans to have two to four dart stations and a small bar. Initially, she is asking the city for permission to sell only pre-packaged beer, wine and liquor but later plans to seek approval to pour alcoholic beverages, she said.
But the business is not designed to be a bar, she said. “It’s a true pool hall” in the tradition of an old-time pool hall, but smoking won’t be allowed, she said.
She is a member of the Amateur Pool Association and plans to offer pool league play as well as pool tables for anyone who wants to drop in and shoot pool by the hour, she said.
She will be ready to open as soon as she can get “conditional use” zoning approval by the city of Hoover, she said.
The zoning board recommended approval of the billiard hall with the conditions that there be no live entertainment unless the owner is granted a special event license from the city and that no amplified sound is detectable from neighboring residential property. Also, the billiard hall would have to be closed between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday night through Friday morning and 2-8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
The zoning board also recommended the council allow two companies called IRA Holdings and Lorna Road Properties (with John Beard as the managing member) to open a used car dealership called Birmingham Luxury Motors at 2970 Lorna Road.
The property has had multiple uses in the past, including a car dealership, home health care company and college. It includes about 19,900 square feet of office space and parking areas spread over 3.9 acres.
The zoning board also put conditions on this approval, including:
- Lighting must be cast down
- A landscape plan must meet the expectations of the city’s landscape architect
- Any signs must meet C-2 commercial district sign requirements
- Loading and unloading of vehicles should be done on site when possible, but if not possible on site, should be done on Little Valley Road and not Lorna Road
- No outdoor speaker system will be allowed; communication on the site should be conducted via a wireless delivery system
The Planning and Zoning Commission also on Monday approved preliminary plans for the entrance road for the 833-acre Everlee development planned by Signature Homes, Marbury Properties and CCN Asset Management directly across Alabama 150 fromt the Lake Cyrus community with the following conditions:
- The developer must submit a suitable stormwater management plan
- The developer must include a sidewalk along the entrance road — to be called Everlee Parkway — from Alabama 150 to the point where a 10-foot-wide walkway will be built
- The developer must get all required permits from the Alabama Department of Transportation to connect Everlee Parkway to Alabama 150
- No development can occur in the Town Center portion of the development (the part closest to Alabama 150) until the developer submits plan for right of way, turn lane and transportation improvements called for in a traffic study that was conducted for the development.
In other business Monday, the zoning board:
- Divided one 1.6-acre lot at 30 Meadowview Drive (just off U.S. 280) into two .8-acre lots to make way for future development. The request comes from an entity affiliated with Millennial Bank, which broke ground this past week on property next door for a new bank headquarters. The bank currently is based in Leeds.
- Approved preliminary plans for 60 residential lots in the seventh phase of the Blackridge South community.
- Approved preliminary plans for 88 residential lots in the seventh phase of the Lake Wilborn community in Trace Crossings. Preliminary plans for this phase originally were approved in November 2019, but Signature Homes resubmitted the plans due to realignment of a street.
- Divided a lot in the Stadium Trace Village development off John Hawkins Parkway into two lots for commercial development. The lot is the location of the planned Village Green entertainment area, which will contain an outdoor amphitheater for up to 1,200 people, artisan market, art gallery with space for working artists, wine tasting room, food and beverage vendors, playground and outdoor game area, and studio room for classes such as yoga, pilates and martial arts.
