HOOVER, Ala. — The Hoover City Council is scheduled Monday to consider removing a 7.33-acre church property from the city limits, a move requested so Trinity Presbyterian Church and Heritage Academy can open a K-8 Christian school at 7160 Cahaba Valley Road.
Ordinance 26-2709 would de-annex the property, meaning it would no longer be governed by Hoover’s municipal zoning authority. The council gave the proposal its first reading July 27 and is scheduled to consider it again Monday.
The church’s request presents an alternative route for a proposed private school after city officials said Hoover’s zoning rules did not allow the school at the Cahaba Valley Road property, according to reporting on the proposal. The property sits across Alabama 119 from Tattersall Park and borders Birmingham on its north and west sides.
De-annexation would not by itself authorize construction or operation of a school. The project would still be subject to applicable county, state and other regulatory requirements, but Hoover would no longer control land-use decisions for the parcel.
The proposal comes less than a year after Hoover’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended denying the Islamic Academy of Alabama’s request to relocate its K-12 school to a vacant office building at 2500 Corporate Drive in the Meadow Brook area.
The Islamic Academy, which had operated in Homewood for nearly three decades, initially sought conditional-use approval to convert space zoned Planned Office into a school and community center with a playground. The academy withdrew that application before its June 2025 hearing, then returned later in the year with a revised proposal.
At a December hearing that drew significant public opposition, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend denial. City planning staff said the proposed school did not align with Hoover’s comprehensive-plan guidance for that area, which envisioned a technology-oriented business district, and raised concerns involving traffic and site capacity.
The commission’s vote was advisory; the Hoover City Council would have had the final decision. But Islamic Academy leaders withdrew the proposal before a council vote, and the city declared the case closed.
The two cases followed different legal paths. The Islamic Academy sought city permission to establish a school within Hoover on property zoned for office use. Trinity Presbyterian Church and Heritage Academy instead sought to remove their property from Hoover, allowing the project to proceed outside the city’s zoning jurisdiction if the council approves the ordinance.
Still, the contrasting approaches are likely to invite scrutiny. Hoover officials subjected the Islamic Academy’s proposed school and community center to a planning-staff review, a public hearing and a zoning commission vote before the proposal was abandoned. The Christian-school proposal is before the council as a de-annexation request after the city’s first reading of an ordinance designed to remove the land from those municipal zoning requirements.
The available public record does not establish that Hoover’s actions were motivated by religious preference. It does show that the city is considering an unusual land-boundary change requested to accommodate a Christian school, while a proposed Islamic school never reached a final City Council vote after the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial amid public opposition.
The Hoover City Council is scheduled to consider the second reading of Ordinance 26-2709 during its meeting Monday.