Ft. Morgan Beach Access Rejected

Published By Mobile Press Register
Monday, December 04, 2006
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

Daphne developer Rick Fine wants to build what he suspects would be the biggest public boardwalk in Alabama between his planned Fort Morgan hotel, called The Sanctuary, and the Gulf of Mexico.

He envisions a winding, handicap-accessible, elevated walkway, with lookout stations for birders and interpretive signage noting the nuances of the surrounding maritime forest, linking his 260-room hotel with one of Alabama's last virgin beaches.

Problem is, the mile-long structure would have to traverse a section of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge that is currently inaccessible -- a characteristic federal wildlife officials hope to preserve.

"Our primary purpose is to protect wildlife," said Lloyd Culp, project leader for the Gulf Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which includes the Fort Morgan preserve as well as the Mississippi Sandhill Crane and Grand Bay national wildlife refuges. "This proposal would go through a portion of the refuge that we would not like to invite public use through."

The boardwalk would also meander across a part of the refuge that regulators regularly burn in order to benefit native species, such as long-leaf pine and gopher tortoises, Culp said.

Fine has pitched his vision to local officials with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which manages the nation's refuges, the agency's regional office in Atlanta and top brass in Washington, all to no avail. Beyond paying for the boardwalk's construction, which he says could top $1 million, Fine has pledged to endow a maintenance fund for the structure and donate $200,000 for a new refuge visitors center.

"I'm offering to do something really nice here and all I'm getting is a hard time," Fine said last week.

With his proposal now before Deputy Secretary of the Interior P. Lynn Scarlett, there aren't many rungs on the ladder left to climb. U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, has declined to back Fine's boardwalk after some Fort Morgan residents voiced opposition, Fine said and the congressman's staff confirmed.

Thus far, Culp said, his bosses in Atlanta and Washington have backed his decision, and he doesn't expect a reversal: "I can't see it happening."

Plans to build The Sanctuary on about 12 acres surrounded by the refuge on three sides and Fort Morgan Road on the fourth were approved by the Gulf Shores City Council in July.

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's theory of organic architecture, Fine's designs call for one eight-story building and four smaller "villas," each with 12 rooms, set among the site's live oaks and sand pines. Also in the designs: Parking within the main tower, outdoor poolside restaurants, a cantilevered pool projecting from the hotel's fourth floor, where another eatery is planned, and a 6,000-square-foot estuarium featuring native fish in the lobby.

The developer said he hopes to begin construction within a year and is negotiating with Wyndham Hotels to manage the resort.

As part of the deal with the city to rezone the land for his plans, Fine agreed to limit construction of the resort to about 4½ acres. And he pledged to spend up to $1 million to continue the city's bike path along the north side of Fort Morgan, from its current end at the Peninsula subdivision to his hotel seven miles to the west and then another mile along the highway's south side to Veterans Road.

Combined with those paths and existing public trails on the refuge, Fine -- who said he raised his children in a home near the hotel site -- said his boardwalk could be the missing link in a stunning hike that would add to the area's ecotourism assets.

Culp, of the wildlife refuge, however, said that public use of the swath of refuge where Fine is building, called the Perdue Unit, is already as high as regulators would like it. Any more access and the refuge could be at risk of losing its allure as the area's only truly natural beach, Culp said.

"It's not always in our best interest to invite huge numbers of people to the beach," he said.