Photo courtesy of city of Hoover
This 535,112-square-foot vacant office building at 2500 Corporate Drive in Meadow Brook Corporate Park is being proposed for use by the Islamic Academy of Alabama.
A vote on a proposal to relocate the Islamic Academy of Alabama from Homewood to Meadow Brook Corporate Park in Hoover has been delayed for a month while modifications are made to a traffic study.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission was scheduled to consider the request Monday night, but representatives for the school asked for a one-month continuance to Nov. 4 after city staff said some corrections needed to be made to a traffic study.
The school currently operates at 1810 25th Court S., just north of downtown Homewood, but wants to relocate to a vacant 535,112-square-foot office building in Meadow Brook Corporate Park. The two-story, brick 2500 building sits on 12.3 acres there, according to the school’s application to the zoning board.
The proposal is to remove some of the parking and add a playground and student dropoff/pickup area and turn the office building into both an Islamic school and community center, but the idea has met some opposition.
Sketch courtesy of city of Hoove
This sketch shows a proposed covered dropoff/pickup area for the Islamic Academy of Alabama in a vacant office building in Meadow Brook Corporate Park in Hoover, Alabama.
Almost 1,200 people have signed a petition on change.org opposing the request.
“While diversity and the growth of educational opportunities are important, the specific location for such development must be thoughtfully considered,” the petition created by a man named Jeff Wilson states. “Corporate parks have a specialized function that must be preserved to maintain the economic health of local business environments. I urge the City Council of Hoover to carefully analyze the long-term implications of this zoning change and listen to the voices of those who live and work in Meadow Brook.”
The petition seeks to “help maintain the intended use of Meadow Brook Corporate Park and protect the interests of our community.”
John Crain, a Greystone resident who works at Diversified Energy in the corporate park, wrote a letter to the city opposing the move, saying Alabama 119 and U.S. 280 are already overcrowded.
“Briarwood school and the gigantic new Whitby apartment complex [in Birmingham] (I still don’t know why that was approved) already clog up two-lane 119, and it seems to be getting worse,” Crain wrote. “There are plenty of school options in the area. Zoning restrictions are put in place for a reason; a school is a poor fit for the Meadow Brook Corporate Park.”
The Islamic Academy of Alabama noted in its application that there already is another school in Meadow Brook Corporate Park at 400 Corporate Parkway — the Woolley Institute for Spoken-Language Education, which is a school for deaf people.
The Islamic Academy of Alabama currently has about 285 students at its current campus in Homewood and expects to grow to about 350 students in the next five to 10 years, the school said in its application. It will provide transportation for a portion of its students via school-sponsored shuttles.
Map from AECOM traffic study
The area in green is a 535,112-square-foot vacant office building at 2500 Corporate Drive in Meadow Brook Corporate Park in Hoover, Alabama, proposed for use by the Islamic Academy of Alabama.
On Fridays, parents and the community would be invited to a 30-minute worship service between noon and 2:30 p.m. There would be no athletic facilities or athletic events on campus, but there may be some after-hours events, such as PTO meetings or dinners during the month of Ramadan, the application said.
The school and community center is expected to generate about 868 vehicle trips per day, including 283 during the morning peak period, 232 during the afternoon school peak period and 60 in the afternoon commute peak period, according to the initial traffic study submitted.
Having a school and community center likely will produce 82% less traffic than if the site were actively used as an office complex, that study said.
At the current campus, the afternoon traffic line typically has about 50-55 vehicles, including 10 in parking spaces and 45 in a vehicle queue, the traffic study said. The projected afternoon traffic queue at Meadow Brook Corporate Park is projected to be 68 vehicles, and with a proposed new dropoff/pickup area, the site should be able to handle 71 vehicles in a queue, the study said.
The traffic study by AECOM also studied three nearby intersections — Resource Drive at Corporate Drive, Corporate Drive at Alabama 119 and Alabama 119 at Doug Baker Boulevard — and determined that all three intersections are capable of handling the expected school traffic. Therefore, no modifications for those intersections are needed, the study said.
Hoover city staff determined some corrections were needed to the traffic study and asked that numbers be refigured, prompting the delay in the vote on the proposal.
The Tuesday, Nov. 4, meeting will be at Hoover City Hall at 100 Municipal Drive at 6 p.m., with a 5:30 p.m. work session.
