Hoover Planning Commission Nixes Islamic School Application

The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission voted Monday evening to recommend that the City Council deny an application requesting Conditional Use approval for a K-12 school and community center at 2500 Corporate Drive in the Meadow Brook community.

The application, C-1025-12, would have allowed the opening of an Islamic school and community center at the property, which is currently owned by Drummond Office Group, LLC. Approval by the City would mean that the existing Islamic school in Homewood—the Islamic Academy of Alabama (IAA) at 1810 25th Court South—could be moved to the 2500 Corporate Drive location.

The Planning Commission meeting saw a standing-room-only crowd fill the Council Chamber, with the majority being community members opposed to the school. A number of those opposed carried signs invoking Dearborn, Michigan (a city allegedly taken over by Muslims) and similar anti-Muslim slogans.

During the Work Session prior to the formal meeting, the Commission heard from City Planner Mac Martin, who said the school did not align with the City's Comprehensive Plan for that area. 

“We did not find that the proposed use was in alignment with the comprehensive plan and general guidance for development in that vicinity,” Martin said, pointing out that the Plan “supports…guidance of that sector of town for a tech village” that would also offer “opportunities for work, shop, eating and recreational uses, like office, research, development firms, retail, restaurants and some residential.”

Martin also said that there had been some inconsistencies in the traffic studies and enrollment capacity figures submitted by the IAA. He stated that the City had requested numbers for the total occupancy of the building, not the “projections of who may be enrolled.”

Lucas Gambino, representing the IAA, remarked that the school had only received the Planner’s written evaluation of the application “Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving,” which gave them very little time to prepare a response. He said that the IAA had been in Homewood for over two decades, currently has 265 students enrolled, and that the school was open to enrollment caps as well as caps on when the community center would be open at the Corporate Drive property.

Gambino stated that the Comprehensive Plan was merely a guide, and that the school fit within the local zoning ordinances. He pointed out that there are already three schools in the area, and that the IAA used numbers and experience from the Homewood campus in projecting the enrollment at the new site.

Gambino also reminded the Commission that there is only a 67% occupancy rate in office buildings in the I-459 corridor, and described the plans to entice more tech companies into the area in question as “aspirational.”

He described the community center as primarily a place where people could come to pray, consistent with their faith, and compared it to spaces at other parochial schools like John Carroll (a local Catholic school).

Commission Chair Mike Wood opened the floor to comments from the community, and all those who spoke, spoke against the application. Most were concerned about traffic in the area, especially along Hwy 119, which was described as a “nightmare.” Others were concerned about the interference of the school with the planned tech center development. Many were concerned about the cultural aspects of an Islamic school, and one person spoke about her experiences in the United Kingdom in areas where Muslims have come to be a significant fraction of the population. There were a number of calls from the audience in support of her, which Chairman Wood was forced to call to order.

Ultimately, the Planning Commission voted to recommend the City Council deny the application. While it is possible the Council will approve it despite this unfavorable recommendation, such a move is highly unlikely..

Mr. Gambino spoke with ALPolitics.com after the meeting, saying:

“From the very beginning, we acted in good faith to provide the City with the information that it was seeking to make an informed decision regarding our application for conditional use approval.

“After months of back-and-forth communication and meetings with the City, all of which centered around the impact on traffic relative to our project, the City came forward at the 11th hour and dropped several “concerns“ that were never previously mentioned and that had nothing to do with traffic.  

“We did our best to respond to these concerns during the Planning Commission meeting itself, since we were not afforded an opportunity to discuss them with City staff given the very late timing of their delivery of these items to us.

“I can appreciate the pressure that was felt by the Planning Commission given the volume of opposition present at the meeting. 

“Some of the comments were at least characterized as legitimate concerns relating to traffic, but the rest was simply unvarnished, unapologetic bigotry that was too long permitted to continue by the planning commission given its irrelevance to the subject matter.  

“While we disagree with the Planning Commission’s decision to not recommend our product to the City Council, we respect its authority and accept its decision.”

With the present application effectively dead, it is uncertain what the next steps for the IAA to acquire a new, larger campus will be. Reportedly, about 40% of the students at IAA are Hoover residents, which would make Hoover a logical choice for a new location. However, the high degree of community resistance to any Hoover site may make this impractical.

Monday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting may be viewed on YouTube on The Hoover Channel and below: