Hoover to fund new traffic study after residents urge removal of Inverness Center Drive curb cut

Hoover officials said the city will order and pay for a new traffic study after residents of Inverness told the City Council and staff they want a proposed access point from Inverness Center Drive removed from plans for a large commercial development.

The study, city staff said, will include new traffic counts (expected in late August–early September per staff comments) and a review of how eliminating the curb cut would affect Inverness Center Drive and nearby Valleydale Road (County Road 17). Blake, a city transportation staff member, told residents: "We are prepared to order this traffic study, pay for this traffic study." The study will be shared with Shelby County because Valleydale is maintained by the county.

Why it matters: neighbors — including two largely age-restricted communities — said a new access point will bring more vehicles and delivery trucks past walking paths and blind spots, raising safety concerns for older residents who use the sidewalk network. Gary Kitchen, who identified himself as a Danbury Cottages resident, said the retirement communities are "average over 80" and asked, "If your parents were living in either 1 of those 2 locations, how would you feel about their safety and their security and their peace of mind and their final years of life?"

Residents described the area as a network of four adjacent neighborhoods (including Danbury, Danbury Cottages, Lake Heather and Beaumont) with multiple blind spots on Inverness Center Drive and pedestrian activity at all hours. Maddox Casey, a Lake Heather resident, told the council the planned curb cut would be the easiest route for drivers coming from U.S. 280 and that eliminating it "would alleviate" the concentrated traffic and allow neighborhoods and the development to "coexist in more harmony." Cody Litton, executive director at Danbury at Emeritus, asked council members to consider noise, delivery activity and visual impacts on the retirement community.

City staff said an earlier traffic study exists but it assumed the access point remained; removing that access would change traffic patterns and therefore requires new counts and analysis. Staff recommended new counts during the school year and estimated two to three months to complete a report after counts are taken, putting a final review at the earliest in October–November. Staff also said industry-standard multipliers (ALDOT-approved) can be used to expedite modeling, but they preferred fresh counts to give residents and reviewing agencies firmer data.

Council and staff clarified limits on their authority. City planning staff explained the property is zoned PCD (planned commercial development) and that, historically, access restrictions have typically been imposed only when developers sought additional zoning entitlements or conditional uses. Staff described one prior conditional-use application — for a gasoline service component — that the planning commission denied after public input. City staff and council members emphasized that a change that would outright prohibit an access point for a development permitted by-right would be unusual unless it was tied to a rezoning or a conditional entitlement.

Residents noted that the developer has already changed earlier designs in response to public comment. City staff said truck/service access was moved away from Inverness Center Drive based on planning-commission input and resident concerns; the city offered to ask the developer and the traffic consultant (Skipper) to present study details and answer residents' questions when the new counts and analysis are available.

Council members and staff listed possible mitigation measures the study could evaluate — including signal warrants, median crossovers, turn-lane geometry and other traffic calming — but cautioned some measures (for example, roundabouts on a multilane road) can be confusing and have trade-offs for older drivers. Staff said stop controls and new signal warrants require separate engineering warrants or studies.

The meeting closed with a commitment to return to residents with study parameters and results. Blake said the city will coordinate with Shelby County on any recommended access changes because Valleydale Road is under county jurisdiction. No formal council vote or ordinance was taken at the meeting.

Residents asked for additional detail about the study radius, expected traffic volumes and timelines; staff said they would work with the traffic consultant (Skipper) to define the study area and to respond to the specific questions raised at the meeting.