One Canal Road in Orange Beach Gets OK

Thursday, April 20, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- Plans for one purported "affordable" housing development were rejected by the City Council on Tuesday while designs for a second project -- billed as an upscale marina community -- were approved unanimously.

Both developments, The Retreat at Orange Beach and The Fountains on Canal, were proposed to be gated communities and both were designed for Canal Road tracts, but they generated dramatically different reviews from city officials.

The approved project, called The Retreat at Orange Beach, features 112 single-family home lots and a marina on about 70 acres along Bay La Launch. The land, which sits just west of Sampson Avenue, is owned by the family of Bay Minette lawyer Dan Blackburn and encompasses the 4.76-acre Lake Baldwin.

Besides the marina and homes, designs for the development include swaths of green space, wetlands and recreational facilities linked by boardwalks and walking trails.

Originally, in May, Blackburn had proposed a $500 million project called Harbortown with 830 residential units, a 500-slip marina and condo towers stretching up to 18 stories tall. In October the plans were renamed Bay La Launch Village and scaled back to include about 500 residential units, shorter condo towers and a less expansive marina.

The Planning Commission rejected both of those early designs before voting in favor of The Retreat designs and forwarding the proposal to the council.

"I hope that it sends a message that we want a residential area in Orange Beach," Mayor Pete Blalock said at the conclusion of a public hearing on the project Tuesday.

Later, just before the council voted unanimously to approve the plans, Councilwoman Tracy Holiday complimented Blackburn on his project, particularly efforts she said he's taken to protect trees on the site.

"He's going to make all efforts to conform to our new tree ordinance," she said. "I think that's going to become a showplace for what we can do with (the tree ordinance)."

In contrast, plans for The Fountains on Canal were criticized Tuesday for lacking green space.
Proposed by developer Robert Orlich, the designs called for 56 houses and 30 condo units on about 10 acres between the Twin Lakes Condominium and the Sawgrass Apartments. According to the plans, only a section of wetlands at the rear of the property, which couldn't be developed anyway, was being set aside as green space.

"There are plans that are just like Legos, you just line up the Legos and try to get as many of them into a square as you can. And then to use the wetlands as your green space ...," Holiday said. "It is absolutely deplorable in this day and age to bring something to us with no imagination.

"You need to take out some of that and have a town center, some green space in there."

Orlich replied: "Well that's all well and good, but at $200,000 an acre it makes it very difficult."

Councilman Larry Alexander, who expressed concerns about approving the development because of its limited space between each two-story home, said land costs weren't the council's problem.

"I don't see where it's any of our business to make sure that developers make a lot of money," Alexander said. "It's not the city's mission to make sure that the numbers work. All I can say is that there are developers going in there throwing money at homeowners and paying them whatever they want and then you have to end up with these type projects.

"We hear more and more developers saying the numbers don't work, the numbers don't work.' This is not our charter to make the numbers work."

Orlich contended that certain buyers, such as retirees, want single-family homes without yards that would require lots of care. Such developments are gaining popularity nationwide, he said.

"If the marketplace doesn't want it, we're not going to sell the units, it's not going to get built," the developer said. "It's just that simple."

Councilman Ed Carroll said he agreed that there was a need for such housing, "but we don't need it all jammed up like this. The guy knew when he bought it that he was taking a chance."

City officials also took issue with the public benefits Orlich proposed as part of his bid for planned unit development zoning.

Guidelines for such developments allow the city to approve a project that may not meet certain zoning requirements, such as building height or setback size, but are deemed the best use of property. Orange Beach rules require that developers of planned unit developments include some public benefit in their plans in order to offset any deviations from standard zoning rules.

Orlich had originally proposed the public benefit of the project to be a supply of "affordable" housing and improvements to the wooded lot's drainage. Council members scoffed at the suggestion that the homes, starting at $350,000, could be considered affordable and said that providing suitable drainage on the property was a requirement of any development.

"We talked about affordable housing relative to the market we're in," Orlich said. "We're not using the term low-income or moderate-income or subsidized. But relative to what's available in Orange Beach, to have a gated community with starting prices for our homes at $350,000 is (affordable)."

The developer also proposed donating 1 percent of every unit sold to a municipal fund that will buy right of way along Canal Road so that the state Department of Transportation can widen the thoroughfare.

The council, however, voted 5-1 to reject the plans.

Councilwoman Joni Blalock cast the lone vote in favor of the project. She said that although she didn't like the project's design, she was happy that Orlich proposed building fewer than the maximum number of dwelling units he could fit on the site under its current zoning.