1 of 2
Land purchases for new I-459 interchange.
2 of 2
Photo by Jon Anderson.
Traffic travels on Interstate 459, just west of South Shades Crest Road, which is an area where the city of Hoover wants to add an interstate interchange.
The Hoover City Council authorized Mayor Frank Brocato to enter an agreement that gives the city the right to purchase 22 acres in preparation for a potential new Interstate 459 interchange just south of South Shades Crest Road.
It’s a land purchase option agreement that gives the city 12 to 36 months to decide whether it really wants to buy the property for $3.27 million.
City officials had intended to move forward with the purchase this fiscal year, but the COVID-19 outbreak negatively impacted city revenues to the point that city officials wanted to hold off on making a financial commitment just yet.
“This really just buys us a little more time,” City Administrator Allan Rice said.
The city is paying $10,000 to reserve the right to buy the property between now and August 2021, and the agreement allows the city to extend that option up to two more 12-month periods for $10,000 each.
The land is currently owned by G.B. Vincent and sits off Alabama 150 directly across from the southern end of Ross Bridge Parkway. It extends southward toward I-459 but doesn’t go all the way to the interstate.
City officials plan to approach the owner of one remaining piece of property between the Vincent land and the interstate, Rice said.
The Vincent property is needed for the construction of a road that would connect Ross Bridge Parkway with the interstate.
The city, if it moves forward with the purchase, would pay Vincent $3.27 million in three installments over three years. Any money put out by the city for the option agreement would go toward that purchase price if the land sale indeed takes place, Rice said.
If the city decides it doesn’t want to buy land, it loses the money that guaranteed the option.
The 22 acres has an appraised value of $1,185,000. However, Rice said that appraisal didn’t take into account that an interstate interchange might be built nearby, so the fact that the city is seeking federal money and approval to build such an interchange increases the value of the land.
Vincent at one point was asking $5.7 million for the 22 acres, but city officials were able to negotiate the price down, as well as obtain the option to delay the purchase.
If the federal government approves an interstate interchange, the city could count any money used to purchase land for an adjacent connector road toward the city’s share of matching money for the project, Rice said. Most federal road projects require some sort of contribution by local governments, often 20% of the total cost but sometimes as much as 50%.
The 22 acres is mostly undeveloped, with one abandoned house on it. The city won’t need all 22 acres to build the connector road, but Vincent did not want to sell just part of it, Rice said. “It was kind of an all-or-nothing deal.”
If the land purchase goes through, full-scale engineering work and land studies will determine exactly where the road needs to go. Then, the city should be able to sell some of the unneeded land for commercial or other uses. The value of that land should rise even more once the road is built, Rice said.
But the Vincent property as a whole is “essential to the construction of the interchange,” Rice said. “We don’t see anyway to get access to the interchange without this property.”
The connector to Ross Bridge Parkway should take a lot of traffic off Alabama 150, including large trucks from Lakeshore Parkway that now are going all the way along Alabama 150 to Exit 10 near The Grove to get on the interstate.
The Hoover City Council in December 2016 voted to pay $2 million to USS Real Estate to buy 31.3 acres on the south side of I-459 so a similar connector road could be built to South Shades Crest Road, potentially connecting at or near Brock’s Gap Parkway.
The city of Hoover is pursuing a federal grant to help pay for a study to justify the need for the new interchange. Such a study was done in 2003 during former Mayor Tony Petelos’ administration, but Petelos’ successor, Mayor Gary Ivey, scrapped the plans for the interchange. Current Mayor Frank Brocato revived the project.
The 2003 study now is outdated, so another one must be completed and approved by the Federal Highway Administration before any design or construction work is done for a new interchange, City Engineer Chris Reeves said.
The City Council in June agreed to seek grant money from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration for the interchange justification study and an interchange modification study for improvements at Exit 10.
The total cost of the studies is $950,000. If the city gets the federal grant, the city would pay $190,000, and the federal government would pay $760,000.
The city should find out by November or December if it will get the grant, and if so, the study would be projected to begin in February and be done by July.
