Photo from Dogtopia website
A Dogtopia day care center
The Hoover City Council on Monday is scheduled to consider a request to allow a Dogtopia dog day care in the Bazaar 280 shopping center near the corner of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119.
Henson and Carlton Millsap, the owners and operators of the Dogtopia day care centers in Homewood and Birmingham, said they want to open a third location in Hoover and need “conditional use” approval to do so in a shopping center.
The business is primarily a day care facility but also would provide some boarding and grooming services, Henson Millsap said. It would be located between the New China restaurant and a space currently utilized by the owner of the shopping center for information technology needs, he said.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on May 4 recommended approval on the condition that the number of dogs at the facility at one time be limited to 120. This is more dogs than normally would be allowed under city standards, which call for only one dog per 110 square feet.
The Dogtopia space at Bazaar 280 would be 5,600 square feet, which would allow only 51 dogs per the city’s current standards. The Millsaps said none of the 280 or so locations of Dogtopia across the country have such a strict limitation, which would make it financially unfeasible for them to operate.
See more details about the Dogtopia request here.
The Hoover City Council also on Monday will consider whether to help fund a study for new greenway trails in the Riverchase Business Park.
The plan is to study the feasibility of adding a trail along the Cahaba River between U.S. 31 and Interstate 65, as well as trail connections to the Riverwalk development and Valleydale Road, City Planner Mac Martin said.
Map courtesy of city of Hoover
The Hoover City Council is considering whether to help fund a study to add trails along the Cahaba River in the Riverchase Business Park, as well as trail extensions to Riverwalk and Valleydale Road.
Such trails would help fulfill goals identified in the city’s comprehensive plan and parks and recreation master plan of giving more people access to the natural beauty of the Cahaba River and places to enjoy recreational walking, Martin said.
City officials also have stated a desire to expand the city’s pedestrian pathways so that they connect with surrounding jurisdictions, and extending trails to Valleydale Road would get the city’s trail network closer to Pelham, Oak Mountain State Park and parts of unincorporated Shelby County, he said.
The homeowners association in Southlake, on the eastern side of Interstate 65, also has expressed an interest in extending any trails along the Cahaba River underneath the interstate, Martin said. There does seem to be sufficient space in the underpass for such an additional trail connection, he said.
The proposed greenway study would review existing site conditions, evaluate constraints and opportunities, developer trail alignment alternatives, prepare conceptual drawings illustrating potential improvements, analyze project impacts and develop estimates of probably construction costs.
The study itself would cost $59,948, with a federal grant picking up $47,958 of that (80%) and Hoover being asked to contribute $11,990 (20%).
The study is expected to take six months to complete and would be administered by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.
In other business Monday, the Hoover City Council is expected to:
- Consider agreements for the relocation of portions of a city sewer line along Caldwell Mill Road near Heatherwood to make way for the expansion of Caldwell Mill Road. The relocation of the sewer line is expected to cost $636,438, and the city could be reimbursed for all the costs by Jefferson County, according to Jason Welch, an engineer and project manager for the city of Hoover.
- Consider a $266,027 change order for the stormwater repair project at Riverchase Village, expanding the total cost of work to $2.16 million. That’s still much less than the original $4.5 million allocated for the project.
- Consider a $7,319 change order for the expansion of the National Computer Forensics Institute at the Hoover Public Safety Center. There was $200,000 set aside within the total $21.3 million contract to cover contingencies, so no additional funds would have to be budgeted.
- Consider whether Hoover should once again participate in the state’s back-to-school sales tax holiday. Finance Director Melinda Lopez is recommending the council approve the city’s participation in the holiday in perpetuity so the council doesn’t have to approve a resolution each year. This year’s sales tax holiday is July 17-19.
- Consider whether to zone recently annexed property at 3960 South Shades Crest Road as an R-1 single-family residential district
- Consider whether to allow a home-based day care at 3599 Deerfield Drive to expand its services to accommodate up to 12 children
- Have a first reading of an ordinance to change standards, requirements and zoning regulations regarding food trucks
- Set public hearings for June 22 to consider whether to declare properties at 3491 Flintshire Drive, 219 Russet Woods Drive, 1901 Greenvale Road and 2337 Tyler Road as public nuisances due to high weeds and/or grass
- Set a public hearing for July 13 to consider whether to declare property at 5823 Rime Village Drive as a public nuisance due to unsafe conditions and require the immediate abatement of the nuisance
