Hoover needs to create city center, revitalize older areas and add cultural amenities, residents say

As Hoover looks to the next 20 years, the city needs to create a downtown area, revitalize older neighborhoods and businesses, and add more cultural amenities such as a fine arts center and pro sports team, residents said tonight.

About 45 people showed up at the Hoover Municipal Center for the last of three initial public input meetings to help develop the city’s comprehensive plan.

Residents had a host of ideas for improving the city, including building up the city’s technology sector, creating more affordable housing, building new roads to spread traffic out more, improving public transportation and adding more bicycle and pedestrian paths.

Former Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, a resident of Ross Bridge, said Hoover needs a bona fide downtown. She thought the Patton Creek shopping center was going to accomplish that, she said. The Grove is another potential area, she said.

Green Valley resident Tim Aho said Hoover lacks a real main street, a place where the city could have a parade if it wanted. U.S. 31 is a central corridor, but you can’t really shut down U.S. 31, he said.

Hoover has a lot of nodes of development in different parts of the city, which is good because they are close to where people live, Aho said. There are a lot of neighborhoods with their own identities, which is also good, but there needs to be a place with which all of Hoover can identify, he said.

The Galleria, through most of the city’s history, has been that “800-pound gorilla,” but as the retail economy changes, there is a great opportunity to create something that ties the city together, Aho said.

Riverchase resident Arnold Singer said Hoover needs a “cityscape.” Birmingham has 15 buildings that are 15 stories or taller and two more 17-story residential buildings under construction, he said. Hoover only has two buildings that are 15 stories or more: the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel and the Galleria office tower, he said.

Hoover needs more high-rise buildings to expand its technology sector and provide an attractive urban center while at the same time preserving its single-family residential neighborhoods, Singer said.

Another woman said she would like to see several downtown areas in Hoover, and they don’t all have to be the same.

Revitalizing older areas

Brian Johnson of the Country Club Highlands community said Hoover needs to revitalize its older neighborhoods by encouraging people to renovate homes and providing better lighting and pedestrian paths in those areas. Homewood is seeing that type of revitalization, he said.

Smoot said Mountain Brook has done a great job of rebuilding its infrastructure, which is bringing people in and attracting young people. She’s not a big fan of multi-family housing, but if you’re going to have it, it needs to be cooler and sexier, she said.

Tom Davis of the Russet Woods community agreed that Hoover needs to do more to keep young people interested in the city. When his young adult children come to visit him, they’re going to downtown Birmingham instead of Hoover, he said.

David Petitt of the Rocky Ridge community said Hoover needs more cultural amenities, like a civic center or place to hold concerts. Pelham’s ice skating rink is always too crowded, so maybe could build one of its own and provide a place for high school hockey teams to develop and play, he said. Hoover also would do well to try to lure a second minor league baseball team to play at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium or some other kind of semi-pro team or XFL football team, he said.

Sandra Fuller, a resident of The Preserve, said Hoover needs a museum or visual arts center that could be connected with a performing arts center.

Transportation issues

Ira Levine, a longtime board member for the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, said the city needs a transportation system to help people, especially out-of-town visitors, get from place to place within the city. Visitors coming into town and staying in the city’s many hotels often don’t have a way to get to all the city’s amenities other than a taxi cab, he said. Perhaps the city or transit system could provide shuttle buses to link the existing and future amenities, providing a service to the guests and stimulating economic activity, he said.

Tricia Simpson, a resident of The Preserve, said she would love to see a 2-to-3-mile greenway on flat land in Hoover where people can ride bicycles and push baby strollers, similar to what some other nearby cities have. The sidewalk along Preserve Parkway is nice, but it’s right by the road with cars zooming by, she said.

Robert Kolar said it would be great to have a greenway along the Cahaba River for hiking and biking and access to canoe launches.

Ellen Kerns, who lives in the Flair Knoll subdivision near the Hoover Country Club, said Hoover needs more affordable housing for seniors. Resident Gene Fuller echoed that sentiment, saying there are a growing number of baby boomers hitting retirement age.

Mike Fowler of the Kirkman Preserve community off Caldwell Mill Road said he’d like to see Hoover work more closely with the myriad of governments in south Jefferson and north Shelby counties to provide more continuity of services for things like potholes, litter control and public safety. Hoover does a pretty good job with those things, but some of the other jurisdictions do not, he said.

Other ideas mentioned tonight included attracting a brewery or an extension campus of a major four-year university like the University of Alabama or Auburn University.

Residents also said they want to maintain the positive aspects of the city, such as the quality school system, library, strong neighborhoods, diversity and park system.

Next steps

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato thanked residents for all their ideas, which he said reinforce some of the initiatives the city already is undertaking.

Jason Fondren of the KPS Group consulting firm that is helping the city draft a comprehensive plan said the team working on the plan will take input from the three recent public meetings and a survey the city is conducting online to create a draft version of the comprehensive plan.

That draft version will be submitted for public review this summer, then tweaked and sent to the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council for review and adoption this fall, he said.

Residents, business owners and property owners are encouraged to fill out the survey at futurehoover.com.

See reports from the first public input meeting at Greystone Elementary School on Jan. 25 and the second public input meeting at Shades Crest Baptist Church in Bluff park on Jan. 30.