Map provided by city of Hoover
Hidden Valley Apartments map 2
U.S. Steel is seeking approval of preliminary plans to allow for 840 apartments on 140 acres on the south side of Interstate 459 between Preserve Parkway and the Patton Creek shopping center.
U.S. Steel is coming back to the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight to try to get plans approved for 820 apartments on the south side of Interstate 459 between Preserve Parkway and the Patton Creek shopping center.
The planning commission denied the request two months ago after City Engineer Rodney Long deemed U.S. Steel’s application as incomplete.
The 140-acre parcel already is zoned mostly for apartments, but U.S. Steel is seeking approval of preliminary plans, which includes dividing the acreage into three lots and building an access road. The project is now called Hidden Valley, but U.S. Steel two months ago still was looking for a buyer to handle the development.
City Engineer Rodney Long noted two months ago that U.S. Steel did not yet have approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make adjustments to a stream bed that runs through the property in the way that U.S. Steel plans to do it.
Hoover Executive Director Allen Pate, who also sits on the planning commission, said U.S. Steel also was only seeking Corps of Engineers approval for the proposed road and did not show on its plans where actual apartment buildings and access roads to those buildings would be.
The city’s engineering staff also said they wanted to see additional guardrails along the proposed road and right-turn lanes into the parking areas for the apartment buildings.
David Stovall, an engineer representing U.S. Steel, said his client would be happy to install whatever turn lanes and guardrails city officials deemed necessary.
He said U.S. Steel already has Corps of Engineers approval to reroute 6,600 feet of the stream on the property through pipes. However, that permit was set to expire soon, and U.S. Steel now has new designs that would have much less environmental impact on the stream, he said.
Instead of redirecting much of the stream through pipes, the new designs show the road crossing the stream in several locations with culverts, Stovall said. The Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t like for applicants to submit changes to plans, so U.S. Steel wanted to wait until it got preliminary subdivision approval from Hoover before applying for a new Corps of Engineers permit, Stovall said.
It’s not clear yet what has changed since U.S. Steel’s application was denied two months ago.
Efforts to contact Stovall and Long today have been unsuccessful.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to meet in a work session tonight at 5 p.m. at the Hoover Municipal Center in a conference room behind the City Council chambers and then will have its action meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers.
The commission also tonight is scheduled to consider:
- Preliminary plans for 97 homes to be known as the Brock Point subdivision off Shelby County 41, next to Greystone and across from Shoal Creek. The developer is Signature Homes.
- Final plans for Phase 4B of the Kirkman Preserve subdivision, to include 26 lots at the intersection of Kirkman Drive and Caldwell Mill Road. The developer is Signature Homes.
- Final plans for a 5-lot subdivision that will make up phase two of the 22nd sector of Lake Cyrus. The developer is Hatch Mott MacDonald.
- A request to allow Noah’s Event Venue to operate at 1400 Corporate Drive in Meadow Brook Corporate Park.
- A request to allow the sale of beer and table wine at Pinots Palette at 181 Main Street in the Patton Creek shopping center.
This article was updated at 6:28 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 14 to correct the number of apartments planned at this site under the current plan. The correct number is 820.
