Gulf Shores To Aggresively Annex Property

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES -- Mayor G.W. "Billy" Duke III told City Council members that he would seek a referendum in which residents of outlying areas within the city's police and planning jurisdictions would vote on whether to become part of the municipality.

Though the city's northern boundary with Foley is defined by a court order and its border with Orange Beach to the northeast and east was settled upon by the cities' prior administrations, not all land within those lines is officially part of Gulf Shores.

Residents of unincorporated areas in the city's jurisdiction would all vote in a single referendum and a majority vote would bring everyone into Gulf Shores, Duke said Monday.

No date for the referendum has been set and there are still questions about how it would be conducted, but those voting would be residents living within the boundary who have not yet brought their property into the city limits.

Those residents live in areas:

East of the Peninsula Golf Course on Fort Morgan Road, including areas north of the highway along the southern shores of Oyster Bay.

Up the east bank of the Bon Secour River.

South of Boggy Branch until it meets Alabama 59.

South of the portion of Baldwin County 10, which is also known as Keller Road, that lies east of Alabama 59.

West of Roscoe Road.
In October 2004, Bon Secour area residents -- many of whom live in the areas Duke proposes to target with the referendum -- defeated by a nearly 2-to-1 margin a proposal to create a county zoning district there. The day before that vote, several area land owners annexed their property -- more than 600 acres total -- into Gulf Shores.

Numerous residents have since annexed into the city one at a time, creating irregular and jagged city limits that have confused municipal services from the police and fire departments to garbage collection and planning, officials said.

"There's several reasons, one of the foremost is it's extremely difficult for police and fire and 911 and planning," Duke said. "If they have a call it's, well, is it in or is it out?'"

As an example of the confusion the jagged boundaries create for his department, Fire Chief Tim Blakemore told the council about calls from the Gulf Breeze RV Resort on Baldwin County 6.

"There's about 33 lots in that RV park that are in the city limits," Blakemore said. "If 911 gets a call they have no idea which lot it is so we wind up having to go, and most of the calls we're making up there are out of the city limits but we don't know until we get on the scene."

Said Police Chief Arthur Bourne: "It's been a problem, just taking one in and going down the road and taking another in. We need to clean it up."

Duke also said that bringing all of the properties into the city would simplify planning efforts and untangle zoning rules in the areas.

"If you just square it all off, you're able to plan, you're able to do zoning that you're not currently able to do," the mayor said. "You've got pockets of county zoning, you've got pockets of city zoning, you've got pockets of no zoning, so it's just a big hodgepodge out there so you can't really plan anything."

Initially, Duke said, city officials will have to approach land owners in the area and get a certain number of them to agree to a referendum, probably through a petition. At about the same time, City Hall will have to request special legislation from state lawmakers to establish the referendum, Duke said. Then, the question would be put to those living in the subject areas.

A simple majority would bring everyone into Gulf Shores, he said.

"It's going to take some legislative action to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish because it's a little bit outside of the box," Duke said. "It's not going to be as easy as we thought it was going to be, but we're going to try to do it."

If the referendum were to fail, Gulf Shores would continue as it does today, letting those with property contiguous to the city limits request annexation one at a time, Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty said. An attempt at annexing everyone in one swoop provides benefits that accepting one parcel at a time does not, Doughty said.

"I think it gives us an opportunity to sit and explain the benefits and what it would cost and be able to have some public hearings and give people the actual facts," she said.

In terms of cost, residents who previously lived in the city's planning or police jurisdictions would see their municipal taxes -- including levies on property, sales and use as well as business licenses -- doubled upon annexation.

For example, while someone in the city's jurisdiction pays only 2.5 mills of property tax, Gulf Shores residents, who have full access to municipal services -- pay 5 mills to City Hall.

A mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

For example, if a house in the unincorporated Bon Secour area is appraised by the county for $100,000 and assessed at 10 percent of that, or $10,000. An increase of 2.5 mills would mean, for the owner of that home, a $25 increase in each year's tax bill if the property was annexed into Gulf Shores.