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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB proposed in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. This would be the view from the side of the building closest to Stadium Trace Parkway.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the rooftop bar and pool proposed as part of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
This map shows the proposed location for the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. The proposed facility is shown in brown just southwest of Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the Brock's Gap Brewery, with a green buffer area between the bed and breakfast and Stadium Trace Parkway.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
This is a conceptual site plan for the proposed Brock's Gap Boutique BnB in the Trace Crossings community.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB proposed in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. This would be the view from Mineral Trace.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB proposed in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. This would be the view from Mineral Trace.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB proposed in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. This would be the view from the side of the building closest to Stadium Trace Parkway.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
This is the zoning map for property around the proposed Brock's Gap Boutique BnB in the Trace Crossings community. The bed and breakfast site is in the middle in white, which is part of the land zoned for planned industrial use in purple. Areas in orange are zoned for residential use, while the area in pink is zoned for planned commercial use, the area in red (including Hoover Metropolitan Stadium) is zoned for commercial use, the area in green is zoned agricultural, and the area in light purple is zoned for institutional use.
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Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB proposed in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama. This would be the view from the side of the building closest to Mineral Trace.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night recommended the Hoover City Council approve plans for a 23-room “boutique bed and breakfast” facility in the Trace Crossings community despite opposition from some nearby residents.
Jordan Hosey of HBH Holdings wants to build the five-story bed and breakfast, now called Brock’s Gap Boutique BnB, on 2.4 acres at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Mineral Trace, across the street from Brock’s Gap Brewery and the Abingdon 55+ residential community.
Her plan is to put a restaurant with an outdoor patio area and salon on the first floor, 22 short-term rental units with one to three bedrooms on floors two to four, and an enclosed event area and cigar bar, outdoor bar and pool, and one additional rental unit on the top floor.
“This is not just a hotel,” Hosey said. She’s trying to bring something new and modern to the city and breathe life into Hoover, she said.
It’s ideal for families and groups coming to sporting events at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and for Hoover residents who want a cool and convenient place for loved ones to stay when they come in town to visit, Hosey said.
David Bannister, a resident of the nearby Abingdon by the River community, said this is the kind of entrepreneurial venture the city’s economic development team has been seeking.
“We don’t have this type of amenity in our area,” Bannister said. “The need for this is paramount. I think this is a complete home-run project.”
But many residents of the nearby Chestnut Ridge community spoke against it.
Nancy Carr said the boutique hotel sounds lovely and is a well-thought-out idea, but the height of the building is a problem.
Hosey and her development team plan to screen the facility from the Abingdon community just across Stadium Trace Parkway by leaving a 100-foot tree buffer in place along the parkway and maintaining an elevation that should not be visible from Abingdon. The building itself would be at least 300 feet away from the median of Stadium Trace Parkway and at least 533 feet away from the homes in Abingdon, said Andrew Cummings of the Gonzalex Strength & Associates engineering and design firm.
However, people who live in Chestnut Ridge on the mountain ridge next to Abingdon will be at the same level of the hotel and be exposed to the lights and noise, several residents said.
“It’s going to be right at us,” Bill Grubbs said. “You’re going to have a bunch of mad older people.”
Residents said they were particularly concerned about noise from the rooftop outdoor bar and pool, fearing loud music and other party noise will disturb them. Noise from the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and Brock’s Gap Brewery and other sounds from the valley already climb up the ridge to Chestnut Ridge, they said.
Image from Black Design Architecture
A sketch of the rooftop bar and pool proposed as part of the Brock's Gap Boutique BnB in the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, Alabama.
Resident Bill McCanna said the whole top floor should be enclosed.
“I have never seen a bar that doesn’t have loud music,” McCanna told the zoning board. “It’s going to be a party animal place for big events in people’s lives, and they’re there to party. This is going to be a problem for people who live on that ridge, and you people are the only people who can stop it.”
Hosey said she doesn’t plan to have bands and amplified music outside, other than typical wired-in speakers. She plans to keep the atmosphere low-key, maybe with some acoustic music, she said.
“I am not trying to be Club La Vela at 2 o’clock in the morning,” she said.
Paul DiGiorgio, an architect with Black Design Architecture, noted that Hosey doesn’t want to do anything that is going to hurt the marketability of the facility and that people will be trying to sleep 8 feet below the rooftop bar.
The conditions recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission are to keep the amplified music inside and have all amplified music shut off at 10 p.m. The rooftop bar and pool also would have to close at 11 p.m.
DiGiorgio also noted that the building is designed in such a way that the rooftop bar and pool are on the side of the building away from the nearest residents, with the building itself serving as a sound screen of sorts.
Planning Commissioner Jennifer Peace noted that this land already is zoned for “planned industrial” use and that someone could put a gasoline station or some type of industrial use on the property without having to get a zoning change.
Abingdon resident Molly McGregor asked if a traffic study had been conducted. Darrell Skipper, a traffic engineer hired by Hosey, said the facility should generate about 49 trips in the mornings and 70 trips in the afternoons. A bed and breakfast facility is on the low side of traffic generation compared to what some other type of commercial or industrial facility might bring, he said.
The zoning board put restrictions so that operations on the ground floor could operate only between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the rooftop bar and pool could only be open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., except for people staying in a room there.
Another condition is that no one would be allowed to stay for more than 180 days at a time, which makes all guests subject to a lodging tax.
The zoning board’s recommendation now goes to the Hoover City Council for a public hearing and a vote on Nov. 20.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:42 a.m. on Oct. 10 to correct the name of the company for which Andrew Cummings works. It is Gonzalez Strength & Associates.
