Hoover council OKs shopping center on Alabama 119, car wash on Alabama 150

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The Hoover City Council tonight approved plans for a small strip shopping center along Alabama 119 on the east side of town and a second Anthony’s Car Wash along John Hawkins Parkway in western Hoover.

The new strip shopping center is set to go on 1.75 acres along Alabama 119 between the Meadow Brook post office and an existing office building, Hoover planning consultant Bob House said.

The plan is to put a 9,200-square-foot building on a triangle of land across from the Old Brook Place neighborhood, said Todd Thompson of the Gonzalez-Strength & Associates engineering firm, whose firm is working with the property owner.

119 Partners II, the owner of the property, has an optometrist interested in locating there and plans to build space for several other retail businesses, said Norman Tynes, executive vice president of Harbert Realty Services.

The owners hope to begin construction within six months and have it built five to six months after that, Tynes said last month. “We’d love to have it done by Christmas,” he said.

Residents of Old Brook Place in the past have objected to commercial development on that property, House said. However, no one objected to the new proposal at tonight’s meeting or at the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last month.

Thompson said the new shopping center would be 250 feet east of the entrance to Old Brook Place and 400 feet east of the entrance to a nearby apartment complex.

Residents of those communities would not be staring it as they exit their communities, he said.

The City Council tonight rezoned the property from a preferred commercial office district to a community business district to accommodate the shopping center.

In a separate case, the Anthony’s Car Wash is to be built at 2420 John Hawkins Parkway, which is on the west side of Interstate 459 near the entrance to the Medical West freestanding emergency department and The Shoppes at Hoover center that contains Sprouts Farmers Market.

Original plans called for both the car wash and a restaurant on the land across Medford Drive from McDonald’s, but the owner decided to eliminate the restaurant and build only the car wash.

Dr. Peter DeFranco, a resident of the Scout Creek sector of the nearby Trace Crossings community, told the Hoover City Council last month he was very concerned about whether development of the car wash on the slope there would send sediment along creeks into the lakes in Trace Crossings.

When The Shoppes of Hoover were developed, there were serious erosion problems that harmed their lake that still have not been completely rectified, DeFranco said. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management does not have the manpower to regulate problems like this, and guidelines the city has in place are not sufficient, DeFranco said last month.

Tonight, Thompson, who also is working on the car wash site, told the City Council his company took residents’ concerns very seriously and agreed after meeting with city staff to implement a three-phase erosion control plan.

That plan includes building two oversized sediment ponds, daily street sweeping in the area around the development, sodding of slopes instead of seeding and turbidity monitoring after each rainfall event, with results being reported to the city.

The council also tonight approved numerous funding agreements with organizations that serve the city. The council agreed to:

  • Cut funding for SafeHouse of Shelby County, which provides services for abused women and children, from $50,000 to $25,000
  • Cut funding for a Communities Family Literacy Program from $10,000 to $7,500
  • Increase funding for the Prescott House, which serves abused children, from $5,000 to $10,000
  • Increase funding for ClasTran, which provides transportation for people with disabilities, from $14,969 to $17,977
  • Increase funding for Oasis Counseling from $7,500 to $10,000
  • Provide $50,000 to the Hoover City Schools Foundation
  • Provide $30,000 to Hoover Helps, which provides food for needy children in the city
  • Provide $15,000 to the Red Mountain Theatre Company
  • Provide $5,000 for the Hope for Autumn Foundation, which aids families battling childhood cancer
  • Provide $2,500 to Red Mountain Park

In other business tonight, the council:

  • Amended its 2017 budget to provide $25,000 for Crimestoppers of Metro Alabama
  • Gave approval for the Soiree Event Gallery  at 2132 Lorna Ridge Lane to sell alcoholic beverages. The location, next to the Carmike 10 movie theater, formerly was home to the Martini’s and Rain businesses, but now will be a banquet hall for wedding events, banquets and corporate parties, the owner said.
  • Gave approval for Dreamland BBQ to sell beer and wine at its near location at 101 Inverness Corners
  • Rezoned recently annexed lots at 3430 and 3406 Strollaway Drive, 3425 Laurel View Lane and 3546 William and Mary Road for residential zones in the city of Hoover
  • Set a public hearing for April 17 to consider approval for a Dave & Buster’s restaurant, sports bar and games business in the Riverchase Galleria
  • Set a public hearing for April 17 to consider rezoning property at 3219 Lorna Road from a neighborhood shopping district to a community business district to allow the Blue Pacific Thai restaurant there to become a full sit-down restaurant and apply for a license to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises