Fort Morgan Marina Decision Postponed

Wednesday, February 15, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES -- With questions over whether submerged land can be counted in developers' plans, and how big a condo tower will be allowed along Fort Morgan Road, the City Council decided Monday to delay a vote on a marina and condo proposal for the peninsula the until its next meeting.

Proposed by Joe Raley Builders, the two-part project would include a 15-story, 204-unit condominium tower called Waters Edge and a full-service marina with 150 wet slips, dry storage for 130 boats, a dock store and a restaurant. The designs are proposed for a tract near the end of the peninsula on Mobile Bay including the old Fort Morgan Marina property.

"We believe the project will not only enhance the city of Gulf Shores but it will dramatically enhance the lifestyle of the people on the Fort Morgan peninsula by way of the amenities that the condominium and the Gulf Shores Marina will offer," said Rebecca Wilson, a spokeswoman for Joe Raley Builders.

A 3-2 vote to put the decision on hold until Feb. 27 followed a 1½-hour-long public hearing. Council members Carolyn Doughty, Philip Harris and Robert Craft voted to postpone a conclusion while Mayor G.W. "Billy" Duke III and Councilman Steve Jones voted against the delay. Councilman Joe Garris Jr. was absent but wouldn't have been able to vote on the proposal anyway because he works with the developers, Duke said.

"It seems like somebody, or maybe the whole body, is trying to stop this project and I just don't think it's fair," Craig Johnson, a Raley employee, told council members.

The developers ask that eight lots along the bay carrying various zoning classifications, including those for businesses and single-family homes, be rezoned as a planned unit development, which would allow them a wider variety of land uses and increased flexibility in design.

Under city rules, landowners must have at least 10 acres to qualify for planned unit development status. While Joe Raley Builders contends that the eight parcels total 10.2 acres, city officials argue that since some of that acreage is under water, it should not count in the land calculations.

"Until you submitted the survey I never dreamed we would be trying to count land under water," Harris said.

Johnson argued that because waterfront land had been cleared away by the marina's previous owners to make room for the existing boat slips and a bulkhead, and never given up to the state -- which generally controls submerged land -- the developers are entitled to count that area as part of their parcel.

For instance, besides qualifying for planned unit development zoning, they would get credit for the submerged land when calculating how many condo units they can build.



Johnson said that until the council changed it recently, the marina property had carried business zoning -- which in other parts of the city would allow construction of up to 42 dwelling units per acre -- and his firm was actually asking for less than half the density it's entitled to at 20 units per acre.

But Doughty said Baldwin County's business zoning, which the marina carried until Raley annexed the property into the city, wouldn't allow near the density they proposed.

"Well that's why we brought it in," Johnson responded.

During the public comment portion of the hearing, Chuck Browdy, a Fort Morgan resident and former Baldwin County commissioner for the area, asked council members to reject the proposal because tax records disputed the developers' claim that they owned 10 acres. Browdy, like two others and some city officials, said that allowing these property owners to count underwater land in their area calculations could set a precedent that would make it hard to deny other waterfront landowners the same right.

"They don't own it and they don't have the rights to use it," Browdy said.

Rick Long, a local pastor who lives in Orange Beach but said he owns land in Gulf Shores, criticized Browdy for speaking against the plans without being a city resident. Long, a member of the Orange Beach Planning Commission, then told the Gulf Shores City Council that they had no basis to reject Raley's plans.

"Everything's been done to question it and that's not your job and it's not your right," Long said. "It seems like you're looking for any excuse or any opportunity" to turn it down.

Overall three spoke in favor of the project, saying it would bring shopping and dining options to a secluded part of the peninsula, and three asked the council to either delay the decision or reject the plans due to environmental or legal concerns.