Zeke's Landing in Orange Beach Proposed Redevelopment

Thursday, April 13, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- A procession of charter fishermen spoke in favor of high-rise redevelopment plans for their home base, Zeke's Landing Marina, at Tuesday's Planning Commission meeting, but the support wasn't enough to sway a majority of panel members to endorse the designs.

Plans call for the current marina -- which includes restaurants shops and a metal boat-storage facility -- to be replaced by a concrete high-rise with 102 one-bedroom hotel suites, 172 larger condo units, about 30,000 square-feet of conference space and six restaurants.

The proposal also envisions space for offices and shops, enclosed dry storage beneath the condos, and a rooftop pool. The 47-slip marina, which currently is home to 30 offshore and six inshore charter boats, would remain about as it is, Zeke's general manager Tom Steber said.

"We have a huge economic impact on this area and we need to do anything we can to keep that going," charter captain Mike Rowell said.

Several captains said that having hotel rooms will help draw anglers who don't want to stay at the beach for the full week that is often required by many of the city's condo complexes. Others said the proposal's convention space could be a lure to help them stay busy year-round.

"Like a family with a two-door coupe, we need to upgrade to a four-door sedan," charter captain Tony Blake said.

During the long public hearing about 15 fishermen urged the commission to approve designs for a 14-story condo, hotel and marina complex that would allow them to continue to operate on the Cotton Bayou property.

A motion to give the plans a favorable recommendation failed on a 4-2 vote. That means that the proposal moves on to the City Council without the Planning Commission's endorsement.

Members Joni Blalock, Al Bradley, Robert Stuart and Coleman Bryars voted against recommending the project, while Dean Young and Rick Long cast "yes" votes.

Though each of the six members who were present at Tuesday's meeting said they liked the plans and wanted to support the fishermen, the four who voted against the plans said they couldn't officially favor a project that more than tripled the area's 50-foot-height limit and would surely set a precedent along the north side of Alabama 182.
Though building height limits have been exceeded in nearly every part of Orange Beach, the 50-foot limit has been long standing on the north side of Alabama 182 between the city's western edge and Alabama 161. In fact, several years ago St. Thomas-by-the-Sea, a Catholic Church near Zeke's, was forced to lower its steeple to conform with the height limit, Planning Commission Chairman Robert Stuart said.

"Unfortunately, I think that if we were to approve this it would open the floodgates," said commission member Joni Blalock, who is also a city councilwoman. "Within a month we'll have all kinds of people in here buying up property and asking for 20, 25, 30 stories."

Commission member Coleman Bryars agreed: "To grant this would open Pandora's Box."

In January 2005, the 5-acre marina was purchased for more than $11 million by four people -- Steber, Daphne resident Maurice Fitzsimons and two out-of-state investors, under the name ZLM Acquisitions, according to news reports and court records.

Originally the owners had proposed a 24-story condo tower at the marina, but scaled back the plans to come closer to the limits imposed by the area's zoning rules, architect Forrest Daniell said. The building was also moved farther away from Cotton Bayou into the center of the property so that the building wouldn't appear as large to residents on the opposite shore, Daniell said.

"The owner wanted to do more of a Key West-style building," the architect said. "He wanted to give it more of a human scale and have a lot of things for people to do at the roadside so the shops are at this lower level."

Steber and Jerry Connor, a Realtor working with the marina owners, said that the need to build to 14 stories is economic.

"We need 14 stories to make the numbers work," Steber said.

Ronald Alawine Jr., a captain who lives across Cotton Bayou Drive, said that the proposal's height shouldn't effect his neighborhood's southern views much.

"Since the hurricanes you can see every building on the beach because we don't have trees anymore," Alawine said. "What one more (high-rise) is going to matter is beyond me."

Some of the charter captains said they believed that if redevelopment plans weren't approved, the owners might sell the property to owners who wouldn't continue to host the fishermen.

Before voting, Blalock and other commission members said they hope that scenario won't play out and that instead the current owners will recast their plans, allowing the fishing captains to stay docked there.

"But we can't be held hostage by that either and we can't make decisions based on what might happen," Blalock said.

Commission member Dean Young said that despite the precedent the proposal's height could set, the diminishing availability of dock space for the area's fishing fleet and the quality of the building plans made the project worth voting for.

"There is a time and place to make an exception," Young said.

Bryars responded: "The argument is, how do we tell the next guy he can't."