Panel Rejects Bon Secour Condos

Friday, January 06, 2006
By VIRGINIA BRIDGES
Staff Reporter

ROBERTSDALE -- Citing concerns about surrounding wetlands and the safety of hundreds of residents, the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to deny a plan to build a 400-foot condo tower and yacht club at Bon Secour.

Rock Point Beach, a development company headed by Tuscaloosa physician Wesley Spruill, was proposing to build a gated community that would include 400 condos in a 30-story tower and a 412-slip yacht club on Bon Secour Bay between Point Clear and Fort Morgan.

Steven Morin, the engineer with the project, said after the meeting that the company would move forward with a plan to build a 30-story hotel and convention center at the site. That move would take the planning commission out of the approval equation, but the project would have to receive numerous permits from county, state and federal officials, said Wayne Dyess, director of the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Department.

After about 40 minutes of discussion, the planning commission voted 7-0 against the project at their regular Thursday night meeting at the county's Central Annex. If it had been approved, the plan would have led to the first major development in the rural Bon Secour area.

Commissioners said that although the building would have been built on about a half acre of upland, its construction and runoff would have harmed the surrounding wetlands. Also, the one road to the property is 6 to 9 feet below the base flood elevation, which could have prevented residents from evacuating or rescue officials from responding when an emergency strikes.

"It is not a question of if an emergency occurs, it is when," said Commission Vice Chairman Arthur Dyas.

Morin said the decision sets a dangerous precedent for high-rise construction in coastal areas, which are almost always below base flood elevations

The development, dubbed Bon Soleil Yacht Club, would have been built on 507 acres at the end of Vera Hough Lane, south of Kennedy Road.

The plan called for using 84 acres for the development and deeding the remaining 423 acres, which is mostly wetlands, to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, according to information the company provided to the county.

The planning commission initially reviewed the proposal at a Nov. 3 meeting and then again at a Dec. 1 meeting. Commissioners postponed their vote at both sessions, asking developers for more specifics on construction, hurricane response plans and potential dredging.

Because of the scope and potential impact of the project, planning commissioners said they wanted the developers to promise in writing that Bon Soleil would of make a minimal impact on the sensitive environment and would resist hurricanes.

According to statements at meetings and information submitted by the company to the county, the first six levels of the condo tower would be for parking, with those levels starting 26 feet above the ground. The first floor of condos would be 96 feet above the ground.

The marina's construction would have been similar to Homeport Marina, next to Lulu's Landing on the Intracoastal Waterway, representatives with the company have said. The concrete-and-wood structure was designed to rise and fall with the tide, company representatives said at previous meetings.

Some dredging would have been required, and the material taken out would have been used to replenish the eroding beach if the necessary permits had been obtained, representatives have said.

The development didn't meet some of the county's design standards for subdivisions, but as a planned residential development -- a designation that allows smaller lot sizes and requires at least 20 percent of the subdivision be set aside as open space -- the planning commission has authority to relax some of the requirements.

Commissioners, however, said they didn't feel they had the authority to grant variances on the deviations in this project.

Some features in the development that didn't meet the county's normal standards include:

The road is 6 to 9 feet below the base flood elevation, more than the normal design standard of 2 feet below the base flood elevation.

Rock Point Beach officials propose having one parking space per unit at the location of the tower and additional parking at the entrance from Kennedy Road. Normal design standards call for two parking places per unit.