The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission on Dec. 1 voted to send a recommendation to the City Council to deny a conditional‑use application to convert the office building at 2500 Corporate Park Drive into a K–12 school and ancillary community center.

City planning staff told commissioners they could not support the request because the proposed use “does not align with the comprehensive plan” for the Meadow Brook tech‑village area and because key technical information remained unresolved, notably capacity and traffic‑study details and required concurrence from the Alabama Department of Transportation for possible impacts to Alabama Highway 119. Staff also flagged shifting project descriptions, uncertainty about community‑center capacity and potential fiscal impacts if the site received tax‑exempt status.

Lucas Gambino, the applicant’s attorney and lead representative, said the zoning code for the planned office (PO) district expressly contemplates a school as a conditional use subject to approval and disputed that the comprehensive plan should categorically preclude the application. Gambino said the team had submitted multiple iterations of the traffic study and offered enforceable concessions, including an enrollment cap and reporting rights. “Call it 400 then,” Gambino told the commission. “If you want us to cap our enrollment at 400 students, we're willing to do that.”

Cody Long, a traffic engineer with AECOM who prepared the study, said the analysis used Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip rates and was back‑checked against an existing comparable school in Homewood. He explained the study’s community‑center assumptions, said staff had asked for an AM‑peak analysis to capture early prayer times, and described alternatives tested to limit queuing and delay at the nearby Doug Baker Boulevard intersection.

Dozens of residents spoke during public comment, most urging denial. Nancy Cooper, a Meadowbrook resident, told commissioners: “Converting the office at 2500 Corporate Park Drive to a school would create a huge problem,” citing heavy congestion on Highway 119 and local roads and an online petition she said had gathered about 1,200 signatures. Local business leaders and residents argued approving a school would contradict the city’s economic development strategy for the Meadow Brook tech area and could set an unfavorable precedent for future land use.

Commission discussion centered on two strains of inquiry: whether a school in that location would materially conflict with the advisory language in the comprehensive plan, and whether outstanding traffic‑study items and enforceability of operational limits left the commission with insufficient assurance of mitigations. One commissioner moved to send the application to council without recommendation; another moved to recommend denial based on staff comments and public input. The motion recommending denial passed; the chair emphasized the Planning and Zoning Commission is a recommending body and the City Council will make the final determination.

The commission’s recommendation does not change the applicant’s right to present the proposal to the City Council, which will consider the record, staff reports and public comment before a final vote.