Members of the Jefferson County Commission will likely have a short meeting on Thursday. They’ll leave the courthouse in Birmingham to attend the 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting for the new Smucker’s manufacturing facility in McCalla.

Nearly two years ago, J.M. Smucker Co. announced that it would build a manufacturing facility in McCalla at the Jefferson Metropolitan Industrial Park to support its growing Smucker’s Uncrustables line. The $1.1 billion capital investment will bring 750 high-wage jobs to the community.

The development is about 1½ miles from the Jefferson-Tuscaloosa counties line on old U.S. 11 between exits 100 and 104 of Interstate 20/59.

Commission President Jimmie Stephens, whose District 3 includes the McCalla Community where the facility is opening, said Smucker’s is helping to transform the area.

“Going from a cow pasture where cattle were being raised to a billion-dollar manufacturing facility is quite a change,” Stephens said. “It’s put a challenge on the commission to make sure they (Smucker’s) are a good corporate neighbor and do not intrude on those people who still live there.

“We want to make sure that the infrastructure is there for good ingress and egress and that the setbacks, lighting and such do not inhibit the quality of life of those surrounding citizens,” the commission president said. “We’re attempting to do that and for the most part we’ve been able to be successful. But it’s still a work in progress.”

Similarly, Stephens repeated his concern for another development in McCalla, the new UAB West Hospital. He described the hospital as a catalyst for change in that area.

“Originally, it wasn’t an entire medical district,” Stephens said. “We want to make sure that everything that’s built there is congruent and fits in with the $400 million hospital.

“It’s a beautiful facility and you want to make sure there are maybe imaging offices and doctors’ offices, perhaps dentist offices, things that are medically related that go up and down that entire corridor,” he continued. “You do not need an auto parts place in the middle of that corridor. We just want to make sure that we continue to try to do the right thing.”
Stephens said the hospital changes the character of the community and brings it from more of a service area to a destination.

“People go to hospitals from a wide area,” he said. “The McCalla Community originated as a very small and clandestine area. It has seen so many improvements and changes over the years that it is a challenge for the county commission to make sure those changes occur in an orderly manner that the citizens will embrace and appreciate.”