✕
☰

Hoover council rejects 44 apartments in International Park, approves Tattersall Park

by

Map courtesy of city of Hoover

The Hoover City Council on Monday night rezoned about 11 acres in International Park from planned office use to planned commercial use but rejected a developer’s request to make it a mixed use center with 44 apartments.

The council also approved a rezoning plan for the remaining 63 undeveloped acres in the Tattersall Park development near the intersection of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119.

In International Park, The Rime Companies wanted permission to construct a building with 60,000 to 70,000 square feet off Acton Road with 44 apartments on the top two floors and commercial businesses on the bottom floor, owner Irving Meisler said.

The Hoover City Council voted 6-0 to approve the rezoning to allow commercial development there, but voted 5-0-1 to deny the mixed use request that would have allowed apartments.

“I just don’t think it’s the right area for something like that,” Councilman Curt Posey said.

Hoover historically has drawn a line between residential and commercial development and separated them, he said. “It’s not that it’s a bad idea. It’s just — is this the right area for that?”

This property is on the edge of the city and in an area that doesn’t have a lot of other apartments nearby, Posey said. He could see a mixed use development with both commercial and residential uses as part of a redevelopment project in an area along Lorna Road and Rocky Ridge Road, he said.

Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said The Rime Companies planned to have 24 one-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom apartments. Because of that, the whole complex would have been expected to add seven or eight students to Hoover schools, Rice said.

Meisler had envisioned restaurants and offices in the commercial space on the first floor, with “high-end” apartments above. He thought it was ideal site for such a development because of the close proximity to Interstate 459 and Interstate 65, Grandview Hospital and medical offices in the area, he told the Planning and Zoning Commission last month.

Monday night, after the apartment plan was rejected, he said he doesn’t think a commercial development there by itself would work. Also, the amount of grading that is necessary for that site makes that property too expensive for an office development, he said.

He’s not sure what he’s going to do now, he said. “I’ll just have to see what my options are and regroup.”

Council President Gene Smith chose not to vote on the mixed use request, saying the request was already dead and his vote would not matter. Councilman Derrick Murphy had left the meeting early and did not vote on that matter.

Tattersall Park

The City Council voted 6-0 to change the zoning for the 63 undeveloped acres in Tattersall Park. Part of the land was not yet zoned, and part of it was zoned as a community business district, but now the property is zoned as a planned unit development with planned commercial use.

At one time, the property owner, Ebsco Industries, had wanted to put a mixed use development there, including 250 apartments, but Greystone residents staunchly fought the apartments.

Mary Sue Ludwig, a member of the Greystone Residential Association board of directors, said rezoning the land for commercial use was a win for residents, but she expects Ebsco to eventually come back and seek approval for some type of residential development at a later date.

Rice said if Ebsco ever submits such a request, it will have to be heard by both the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission and the Hoover City Council, and any opponents would have an opportunity to speak against it at that time.

Ludwig said she believes Ebsco will have to compromise in some way, perhaps by asking for condominiums or town houses. “We could live with that, but not a million of them,” she said.

Steve Monk, an attorney for Ebsco, last month told the zoning board there is no plan for a residential component at Tattersall Park “at this time.”

Potential Publix?

Brooks Knapp, vice president for Ebsco Industries, on Monday night said it felt good to finally get the zoning approved for Tattersall Park. Land development has been under way for a long time, and his company is actively trying to market the site. Several parcels are under contract, Monk said.

The latest plan submitted to the city shows a grocery store on the end of the development closest to U.S. 280. Ebsco has not named that grocery store, but Ludwig said when she met with an Ebsco representative last month, an official from Publix was present and said Publix was looking forward to coming to Tattersall Park.

Brenda Reid, Publix’s media and community relations manager for Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, said the company does not comment about or confirm potential store locations until a lease is signed.

Publix already has a 54,000-square-foot store just a mile east on U.S. 280 in The Village at Lee Branch shopping center. It opened in August 2003, Reid said. The Florida-based grocery chain has two other stores in Hoover — one in Trace Crossings and one in the Green Valley community, she said.

A Louisiana Bayou-themed restaurant and sports bar called Walk-On’s Bistreaux and Bar also has announced it is coming to Tattersall Park.

Ebsco’s plans for Tattersall Park show three primary entrances for the development — one off U.S. 280 that will go all the way through the development called Tattersall Boulevard, one off Alabama 119 called Tattersall Park Drive and one off Greystone Way (the other end of Tattersall Boulevard).

Ebsco also is committed to add a right turn lane on Greystone Way, coming from Alabama 119 and turning right onto Tattersall Boulevard, when Tattersall Boulevard is widened to four lanes, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, Monk said.

There also would be two secondary access points off Alabama 119 with only right turns in and out of Tattersall Park. One of those roads already is open at the Brookwood Baptist stand-alone emergency department. At this point, all the roads would remain private roads, with the option to make them public later.

Ebsco also is committed to building sidewalks on both sides of the streets in Tattersall Park. Most of the sidewalks would be 6 feet wide, but two segments would be 4 feet wide, according to drawings submitted to the city. A sidewalk also would connect with the nearby Greystone Ridge community along Greystone Way, Monk said.

The development will meet the city’s regulations for landscaping and building design standards, he said.

Other business

In other business, the council:

Back to topbutton