Hoover council denies PetSuites Resort on John Hawkins Parkway

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The Hoover City Council on Monday night went against the recommendation of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and denied a request to allow a 14,240-square-foot pet grooming, nutrition and boarding facility on 2 acres along John Hawkins Parkway.

But the council did approve changes to the zoning plan in The Preserve subdivision to allow for a grocery store in the town center and plans for a 15,000-square-foot shopping center at the corner of Alabama 119 and Doug Baker Boulevard.

PetSuites Resort wanted to put a $4 million 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 had 140 pet suites and could hold up to 182 dogs when dogs from the same family shared a suite, a company official said.

While the planning commission voted 4-3 in favor of the pet facility on Sept. 10, no City Council member voted in favor of the request Monday night.

Councilman Gene Smith, who actually didn’t vote on the matter because it had already failed to pass before his name could be called, said the PetSuites Resort was a very good concept, just not in the right place.

“Perhaps your client can find another property and still come forward again,” Smith told attorney Charlie Beavers, who represented PetSuites Resort and the property developer.

Residents on Pine Rock Lane, which is next to the vacant property where the pet facility was proposed, said they were concerned about noise from barking dogs, the smell of pet waste and the potential for their property values to decline due to being next to a dog boarding facility.

Beavers reiterated that a noise study conducted on a similar facility in Roswell, Georgia, found that the sound of barking from when the 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. And no barking could be heard outside the facility once all dogs were put inside for the night, he said.

The outdoor play area would have been situated on the side of the building closer to John Hawkins Parkway, allowing the building to serve as a sound barrier, and PetSuites Resort had proposed extensive tree plantings to add to the buffer.

Also, no animals would have been allowed outside after sunset or before sunrise, and the facility was to have an odor control and sanitation program and a system that kept animal waste from draining into the stormwater sewer system or leaching into the soil and groundwater.

While council members said they appreciated all the measures PetSuites Resort was proposing to protect nearby residents’ enjoyment of their property, they just weren’t enough.

Councilman Mike Shaw said he called 12 businesses near other PetSuites Resorts around the country and asked the people there if they heard dogs barking. Nine said yes, and seven said it was enough to bother them and that they would not want to live next to such a facility, Shaw said.

Councilman Curt Posey said residents in Hoover right now are very attuned to proposed developments near their homes and strongly want to protect their communities from developments that might lessen the enjoyment of their neighborhoods.

If PetSuites had proposed this on a different piece of property, there might have been a different result, Posey said.

Councilman Derrick Murphy said the council wants to be pro-business, but it has to listen to voters. Even though the smells and sounds from the proposed facility might have been de minimis, sometimes the perception of a problem can get in the way, Murphy said. People trying to sell their homes might have trouble doing so with a pet boarding facility right next door, he said.

GROCERY STORE IN THE PRESERVE

In The Preseve town center zoning case, the council agreed to allow a grocery store that occupies up to 29,000 square feet. The previous zoning plan did not allow any commercial tenant to take up more than 15,000 square feet.

Peter Allsopp, a representative for U.S. Steel, the developer of The Preserve, said this would allow a grocery about the size of the Piggly Wiggly in Mt Laurel or the Western Supermarket in Mountain Brook Village.

However, while U.S. Steel has some prospects for the grocery site, no one is signed up yet, Allsopp said. They are still recruiting and hope to have a tenant firmed up to begin construction this time next year, he said.

The council also rezoned the property north of the existing town center from a PR-1 single-family residential zone to a planned commercial zone.

U.S. Steel will be permitted to have mixed-use development with the planned commercial zone that includes both detached and attached residential dwellings north of the town center and upper floor housing within the town center. Original plans showed only attached residential units there, but U.S. Steel might like to develop some of the residential units as cottages or bungalows, the company said.

U.S. Steel also has agreed to keep development at least 200 feet away from the boulder fields in the 350-acre Moss Rock Preserve nature park.

Ken Wills, president of the Friends of Moss Rock Preserve, said his group does not oppose the commercial development but asked the council to consider acquiring an 8-acre parcel just south of the boulder fields to create an even greater buffer zone.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato has said he would rather the developer donate the property to the city than have the city purchase it.

Wills said it’s also important to find a temporary place for people who visit the Moss Rock Preserve to park until permanent parking areas can be constructed because the existing parking lot is slated for development.

Posey agreed that the city needs to find a solution to the parking issue. He said he has had more comments from the public about that than about the recent tax increases passed by the council.

ALABAMA 119 SHOPPING CENTER

The council also on Monday gave approval for developer Jim Mitchell to put a neighborhood shopping center at the corner of Alabama 119 and Doug Baker Boulevard. It is the same site where the City Council rejected a Valero gas station in January 2015.

An adjacent property owner told the Hoover zoning board in September that he knows something will be built on the vacant site, and he believes this is much better than the gas station and convenience store previously proposed.

Mitchell today said that now that the shopping center has been approved, his engineer and architect will get busy on more definitive plans. He will probably start meeting with contractors next week about which type of construction materials to use, he said. New tariffs are having an impact on the cost of materials, he said.

Mitchell said he hopes to begin work soon on underground work, such as drainage. Above-ground construction probably won’t start until 2019, he said.