Hoover put a storm sewer job out to bid, and used drainage to stop a subdivision

Two things happened in Hoover last week that belong in the same post, because they are the same story told from two ends: the city spending money to fix drainage, and the city refusing to issue permits until someone else fixes drainage.

We keep a running record of what the city actually does about water because in a neighborhood built along the Cahaba, drainage is not a side issue.

Confirmed: Glenwood Road storm sewer improvements are out to bid

The City of Hoover advertised Bid #26-013, Glenwood Road Storm Sewer System Improvements, on September 9, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. The bid status is Open. The dates that matter (City of Hoover, Bid 26-013, published September 9, 2026):

• Mandatory pre-bid meeting: September 16, 2026, 8:30 a.m. CT, in the Building Inspections Conference Room at the Public Safety Center, 2020 Valleydale Road
• Bids close September 30, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., submitted to the City Clerk’s Office at Hoover City Hall, 100 Municipal Lane
• Bids opened the same day at 2:00 p.m. CT
• Advertised through alabamabuilds.gov, with the advertisement, specifications and plans available for download

A bid advertisement is not a construction schedule. No contractor has been selected and no contract has been awarded, so we cannot tell you when work would start or what it will cost. The city’s capital projects status page also lists a Glenwood Road drainage project, but that page carries no publication date, so we are not treating anything on it as current.

What the advertisement does tell you is that this project has moved from paper to procurement. That is the step where a drainage project stops being a line item and starts being real.

Proposed, and blocked: four industrial lots at Stadium Trace and Flemming

On September 8 the Planning and Zoning Commission postponed a decision on final plans for four lots zoned Planned Industrial in Trace Crossings, at the corner of Stadium Trace Parkway and Flemming Parkway — case S-0926-30, Mineral Trace Industrial Site (City of Hoover, September 8, 2026 agenda).

The disagreement was about timing, not about whether the work gets done. The developer, Signature Homes, is proposing off-site stormwater improvements downstream to fix a flooding problem at that intersection. City staff do not want to approve building permits until that work is finished, because of the risk of further flooding problems. The developer asked to be allowed to pull permits first (Hoover Sun, September 9, 2026).

The commission did not resolve it. The case was postponed.

We are not going to characterize who is right. We will note what it establishes: Hoover’s staff are currently willing to withhold building permits over downstream flooding, and willing to say so in a public meeting. That is a useful thing for any Hoover homeowner to know, whichever side of a drainage line they are on.

Also on the Cahaba: eight lots approved on Inverness Point Drive

The commission approved preliminary plans for eight residential lots on Inverness Point Drive on September 8 — case S-0726-24, a 35.6-acre property to be called Jennings Reserve, owned by Acton Development Corp. and zoned E-2 single-family estate. Four of the eight lots would abut the Cahaba River, according to plans submitted to the city (Hoover Sun, September 9, 2026; Hoover Sun, September 4, 2026).

Infrastructure and a single entrance road are expected to take about six months once started. The lots will be sold individually, so the timing of any house is up to whoever buys the lot. The development is to be gated (Hoover Sun, September 9, 2026).

This site is in Inverness, not in Riverchase, and it is on the far side of the city from us. We are noting it because it is river frontage on the same river, approved this week. We looked for a condition specific to the Cahaba frontage in the reporting on the outcome and did not find one mentioned. That is an absence in the coverage we read, not proof that no such condition exists.

What we could not confirm

Nothing new surfaced in the past ten days on the Riverchase Crossings East agreement, the Galleria sale, or Riverwalk Village. We searched for dated coverage and filings on all three and found none in that window. The city’s own news feed would not load for us when we checked this morning, so we cannot tell you whether something was posted there. The council’s regular meeting is scheduled for tonight, September 14, at 6:00 p.m. at 100 Municipal Lane, and the agenda for it had not been posted where we could read it (City of Hoover, 2026 City Council Meetings).

We would rather tell you that than fill the space.