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Photo by Jon Anderson
About 100 people attend a meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision on Monday, April 10, 2023. Most were there regarding a proposed wholesale club store and gasoline station in Inverness.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision discusses a proposed gasoline station with a wholesale club store in the Inverness community on Monday, April 10, 2023.
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Site plan by Williams Blackstock Architects
This 189,000-square-foot proposed commercial development is proposed for a 20-acre site at the corner of Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive in Hoover, Alabama.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
People line up to speak against a proposed wholesale club store and gasoline station in the Inverness community at a meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision on Monday, April 10, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
This map shows the proposed location of a 20-acre commercial development with a wholesale club store and gasoline station at the corner of Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive in Hoover, Alabama (shown here next to the Danberry at Inverness retirement community.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Keith Owens of Alumni Properties & Investments speaks to the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision on Monday, April 10, 2023, about his request to allow a gasoline station with a wholesale club store in the Inverness community.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
About 100 people attend a meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision on Monday, April 10, 2023. Most were there regarding a proposed wholesale club store and gasoline station in Inverness.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Gary Kitchen, a resident of The Cottages at Danberry community in Inverness, speaks against a proposed wholesale club store and gasoline station at a meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision on Monday, April 10, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
This map shows the proposed location of a wholesale club store and gasoline station at the corner of Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive on a 20-acre parcel shown outlined in red. It also notes currently failing intersections of U.S. 280 with Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Planning and Zoning Commision Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Peace and Chairman Mike Wood listen during discussion of a proposed wholesale club store and gasoline station in the Inverness community on Monday, April 10, 2023.
The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night unanimously rejected a developer’s request to put a big-box wholesale store and gasoline station on 20 acres off Valleydale Road in Inverness.
The decision came after hearing roughly two hours of discussion and significant opposition from nearby neighborhoods, including Beaumont, Danberry and Inverness Highlands.
However, the developer, Keith Owens of Alumni Properties and Investments, said after the meeting he plans to appeal the denial to the Hoover City Council, so the issue likely isn’t over.
Owens’ company is seeking to build a 103,000-square-foot big-box wholesale store with a tire center and 16 gasoline pumping stations, plus at least eight other retail buildings on wooded land at the corner of Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive, across from Inverness Corners and next to Inverness Plaza. The preliminary plan included a total of 189,000 square feet of buildings.
The developer did not specify the name of the big-box business or other potential tenants, but numerous residents who have had meetings with the developer identified it as a BJ’s Wholesale Club store, and Owens did not refute that assertion.
Alumni Properties and Investments actually does not need any zoning approval to build the wholesale store because the property already is zoned for planned commercial use. However, the developer does need approval for the gasoline station, and he told the zoning board that is a critical part of the wholesaler’s business model.
About 100 people attended Monday night’s zoning board meeting, and many spoke vehemently against the proposal, citing increased traffic, safety and environmental concerns and a loss of property values for nearby residential areas.
“There is absolutely no need for additional gas pumps or gas stations in this immediate area,” said Gary Kitchen, a resident of The Cottages at Danberry community.
There are six gas stations within a mile of this location, and four of them are within half a mile, and they’re all along U.S 280, Kitchen said. There is no need to put unwanted gas stations closer to the residential communities along Valledyale and Inverness Center Drive, he said.
Most wholesale companies with gas stations are located very close to interstates and don’t intrude into residential communities, he said.
Mike Mazer, president of the Lake Heather Estates Homeowners Association, said residents already are concerned with excessive runoff and sewer contamination of the private 100-acre Lake Heather, and adding a gasoline station with 16 pumps in an area that drains into Lake Heather will add to the problem.
Ricky Brooks, the former CEO of Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers and a resident of Lake Heather Estates, said he is pro-development and loves the city of Hoover but said this type of development doesn’t belong at this site.
Doug Dickinson, a resident of The Cottages at Danberry, said Inverness Center Drive, where one of the entrances and exits to this development would be, already is a major cut-through between Valleydale Road and U.S. 280. Adding more traffic, especially truck traffic to that road, could be dangerous because it’s a curvy road with blind spots, he said.
Cody Lytton, director of plant operations for the Danberry at Inverness senior living community immediately behind this proposed commercial site, said he is extremely concerned for the safety of residents in that community.
Lytton questioned the purpose of this development. He’s all for profitability for companies, but “attempting to create profit at the expense of residents and senior citizens entrusted to my care is very disturbing to me,” he said. “I feel like it is shortsighted at best and totally reckless at worst.”
Successful businesses fill a void, but there’s no need for another gas station in this area, Lytton said. “The facts show that this fueling station is not only unnecessary, but highly unreasonable and potentially unsafe,” he said. “It feels to me as if we’re not quite following the need here, but we’re maybe following the greed.”
Dana McGinnis, a resident of the Beaumont community, said if this gasoline station with discount prices opens, it could lead to lower property values for nearby homes and the closure of other gasoline stations along U.S. 280, leading to blight. Gasoline stations are some of the hardest to resell and repurpose because of the gas tanks and environmental concerns, she said.
A traffic study conducted by Skipper Consulting for the developer anticipates the new development would add 999 vehicle trips in the midday peak hour and 892 vehicle trips in the afternoon peak hour.
The study recommends a new traffic signal at the Inverness Corners entrance near Milo’s, new turn lanes to get into the development, extension of existing turn lanes and a modification to allow two lanes to turn right off eastbound U.S. 280 onto Valleydale Road.
Some residents questioned the validity of the traffic study because it was conducted in July when school is out of session.
Darrell Skipper of Skipper Consulting said his analysis of traffic counts in that general area is that traffic counts actually were higher in July than they are in April or May. However, even if he figured 25% more traffic into his traffic counts, it would not call for any significant changes to his recommended traffic flow improvements, he said.
Residents noted that the U.S. 280 intersections with Valleydale Road and Inverness Center Drive already are rated as failing. Skipper said there’s only so much that can be done when U.S. 280 already has so much more traffic than it was designed to handle.
Residents questioned the wisdom of adding even more traffic, noting that a wholesale club store and gasoline station is going to pull a significant amount of traffic that otherwise wouldn’t come there.
Hoover City Planner Mac Martin noted that this site has been zoned for commercial development since 1990 when plans were made for the Inverness community and that the city’s comprehensive plans calls for commercial development in this vicinity. He also noted that the developer altered the layout of his development after listening to residents’ concerns in a community meeting in March.
The changes included moving the gasoline station and tire center away from Inverness Center Drive and adding more of a landscaping buffer along Inverness Center Drive. Fuel trucks would be kept off Inverness Center Drive, although other delivery trucks would not, Owens said. Also, fuel truck deliveries would be expected four times a week, most likely between 7 and 10 p.m., he said. Other delivery trucks that would use Inverness Center Drive to get back to U.S. 280 likely would come eight to 10 times a day, he said.
The developer also agreed to put an 8-foot-tall fence or wall and landscaping shrubbery between the development and the Danberry at Inverness retirement community behind it, Martin said.
When the zoning board ended discussion Monday night, Chairman Mike Wood asked for a motion and got none. He then said the matter would be forwarded to the City Council without a recommendation.
However, zoning board member Jason Lovoy then made a motion to deny Alumni Properties & Investments’ request, and it was approved unanimously. The audience erupted with applause and a standing ovation.
Brooks said he was very encouraged that the zoning board had the courage to step up and do what’s right. While’s he’s pro-development, this particular plan would have created a tremendous and unreasonable amount of traffic, he said.
Lovoy said he thought the residents did their homework, came very well prepared and made very convincing arguments about why this was not a good idea. Zoning board member Ben Wieseman, who seconded Lovoy’s motion to deny, said he was surprised the developer did not do more to answer the litany of concerns expressed by residents.
Owens said he plans to appeal the rejection to the City Council but declined to comment more about the vote. If he does appeal, a public hearing will be set with the City Council.
