17 Story in Gulf Shores Meets 20 Year Old Zoning

Proposal prompts zoning workshop
17-story condo proposal to replace Sawgrass Landing shopping center OK'd by the Planning Commission last week
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
By RYAN DEZEMBER Staff Reporter
GULF SHORES -- With a high-rise project planned for the site of a shopping center along Alabama 59, city officials said they would rework zoning laws in order to limit the proliferation of condo towers on commercial property beyond the beachfront.
Under current rules, any property zoned BG, for "business: general," allows buildings up to 200 feet tall as well as density levels up to 42 dwelling units per acre, standards which are common on the densely developed beach, but unheard of in the rest of the city.
According to city records, Donald S. Ryals has asked to build a 17-story building called Sawgrass Condominiums, on the site of the Sawgrass Landing shopping center. The 5.45-acre site is just south of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and north of the Waterville USA amusement park, about a mile from the beach, according to the plans.