Ross Bridge

ERIC VELASCO
News staff writer

Mayor Barbara McCollum confidently climbed two boulders and stepped into the cab of a track hoe on a sunny morning last week.

She cranked up the heavy earth-digger and pulled levers to lift the dirt-filled shovel high into the air before dumping it on the tree-cleared ground.
It was the official start to construction of a $55 million hotel and conference center in the Ross Bridge community west of Shades Mountain.

"It's so exciting," McCollum said afterward. "I've come out here three or four times just to make sure it's happening. Today is the highlight."

But the first-term mayor's triumphant moment also was symbolic. While some credit her two years of hard work behind the scenes to bring the $1 billion development together, others seethe that she bulldozed it through the approval process.

The planned 1,600-acre Ross Bridge community is Hoover's biggest annexation in more than a decade. And it may be one of the main issues on which McCollum will be judged if she seeks re-election in 2004.

The mayor and her supporters tout the project as providing a method to reduce commuter traffic via a parkway that will be built there. For $12 million, the city will get the $10 million road and a $6 million convention center that meet urgent city needs, proponents say.

Meanwhile, they say, Ross Bridge will provide a projected $46 million in revenue for the city over its first 20 years. It should help Hoover lure tourists. And it will enhance the city's image if the development's golf course draws the televised professional tournaments it is courting, proponents say.

Opponents, however, have been critical of the way McCollum limited debate on what the annexation and development would cost Hoover.

When the original zoning plan listed prices and deadlines for the public improvements, McCollum had them taken out. She pushed the City Council not to discuss them while deciding annexation and zoning.

"It hasn't been thought through," said Councilman Jack Wright. "If it has been, no one has communicated it."

McCollum has seen setbacks since the project became public more than 1½ years ago.

Her push to include a performing arts center for school use failed when the school board said it wasn't interested.

McCollum's proposal to build a road down Shades Mountain to provide emergency service has alienated many residents in Bluff Park, her traditional political power base.

Supporters predict Ross Bridge will be, as McCollum put it, Hoover's "crown jewel." Opponents say it could be her political albatross.

Art of the deal:

During last week's Ross Bridge construction kick-off, McCollum was praised for her leadership and vision by both politicians and developers.

According to all sources, she was instrumental in bringing together USS and the Retirement Systems of Alabama to meld separate projects they had planned.

Soon after the 2000 election, McCollum started talking to USS about annexing land in the valley west of Shades Mountain.

USS wanted to build a mostly residential community, with offices and neighborhood shops.

Seeking to fulfill a campaign promise, she hoped to get an extension of Deer Valley Parkway built there to reduce commuter traffic on Shades Crest Road.

Then she learned RSA wanted to build a new Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course near its 54-hole Oxmoor Valley course. McCollum brought the two parties together.

Now the Daniel Corp. has become USS's partner to build about 1,700 houses, 600 apartments and the commercial aspects of Ross Bridge. RSA plans a 262-room hotel with full-service spa and a 25,000-square-foot conference center to go with its golf course.

"This is all here thanks to Mayor McCollum's leadership," said Charles Tickle, president of Daniel. "It took a leader like the mayor to hold us together."

McCollum has championed public-private partnerships. Tom Howard, general manager of USS Real Estate, said it was crucial for Ross Bridge.

"When you have that kind of partnership, you get things like this," Howard said. "This is a huge investment in this community. And we think it will be one of the best projects we've done around the country."

Lingering on the horizon, however, are vexing questions that opponents say will be political issues during the 2004 election if McCollum runs, as expected.

Opponents keep asking those questions: Did the city need to add a development that could bring in 5,000 more people, force the construction of a new elementary school and recreation fields on land USS is donating? Can it afford the extra police officers and vehicles to serve a community far removed from the city core?

They wonder if the mountain road will be built over some residents' objections, or will Hoover build, equip and staff a new fire station.

"How do you integrate something this huge into Hoover and do it the way Hoover has become accustomed?" Wright said. "You can't be all things to all people and spread yourself too thin."