City May Put $2.7 Million Toward Road Project

Sunday, December 18, 2005
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- In an attempt to expedite the widening of often-clogged Canal Road, the City Council is scheduled to vote at its Tuesday meeting whether to give the state $2.7 million to buy rights of way along the route.

City officials learned last month that the Alabama Department of Transportation had moved back the project's start date from next year to 2009.

Canal Road -- also known as Alabama 180 -- is two lanes, though a center turn lane runs along some stretches. Plans call for about 5 miles of the road to be to widened. That portion west of Alabama 161 is slated to become four lanes separated by a median while a center turn lane is planned to be added to that segment east of the north-south highway.

Mayor Steve Russo said that shortly after he heard about the "unacceptable" delay, he met with state Sen. Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, and state Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Gulf Shores, to figure out what was causing the hold up.

Byrne "met with the Department of Transportation, he got back to me and he said the problem is the right-of-way acquisition budget: The money is not there to buy right of ways," Russo said.

State officials estimate that it will cost $2.7 million to buy roadside property along the route to complete the expansion, Russo said.

"From what I've been told, the engineering and all of that has not come to a halt," Russo said last week "It's just the acquisition of the right of ways."

In agreements with the council, three separate developers have agreed to widen portions near their Canal Road projects. Therefore the state only needs to widen an approximately 2.2-mile stretch between Alabama 161 and the eastern edge of The Wharf, a mixed-use development under construction near the Foley Beach Express toll bridge.

The Wharf's Birmingham-based developers, AIG Baker LLC, have agreed to add lanes to the north side of the road across its property, which straddles the toll bridge's southern landing and is about seven-tenths of a mile long.

To the west, developer Tim James has proposed replacing a concrete plant with high-rises featuring 903 condo units. A condition of that unnamed project's approval is that he widen a half-mile of the state park from his property west to the Beaver Creek subdivision's entrance.

To the east, developers of a 462-unit Terry Cove condo called Grand Harbor will expand about 1.4 miles of the highway between Alabama 161 and Wilson Boulevard as part of its plans.

If the council is willing to put forth the funding, Transportation Department officials said they could begin buying rights of way immediately instead of in 2007, when state funding becomes available, the mayor said.

"The benefit of that is it'll only be $2.7 million dollars instead of $4.4 or $4.5 of whatever it may be (in 2007)," Russo said.

The mayor said that money pledged by developers for any infrastructure improvements could be given to the state as long as the council votes to do so. The city has millions accumulated from developers who often provide it to fulfill public benefit requirements of certain zoning categories.

Though there has been talk at the city level that many landowners along the state highway could be persuaded to donate rights of way because a wider road is expected to improve traffic flow and property values, the state must pay for the land, City Administrator Jeff Moon said.

"If I donate the easement and they condemn yours and pay you, then I may have recourse against them to get the same amount of money," Moon told council members last week. "So they want to pay everybody on the front end to make it clean."

Both Moon and City Attorney Larry Sutley encouraged council members to push the Transportation Department to commit to a detailed timeline for the project's completion, if Orange Beach provides the millions.

"We would need something definitive in the agreement that would say our total obligation is X," Sutley said. "If the cost accelerates because of untimeliness or anything, this is not a burden for us and that they agree to stay on the timeline. Staying on the timeline is key."