Orange Beach Land Bid Gets OK from Panel

Mayor will offer $2 million for waterfront tract where Wolf Bay span would take off
Thursday, December 07, 2006

Published By Mobile Press Register
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
ORANGE BEACH -- Mayor Pete Blalock will offer $2 million for 2½ acres along Wolf Bay that is targeted to become the launching point for a bridge to Sapling Point.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow Blalock to offer that amount based on the value a city-hired appraiser assigned to the tract, though city officials said the property's owners have indicated they want more than $2 million.

"Obviously, I have no clue what they'll do," the mayor said. "I'm pretty sure they'll probably want more than that but we have to start somewhere."

Baldwin County Development LLC owns the property after buying it in April 2004 for $3.5 million, according to Baldwin County Probate records.

Moon said that while the city had previously talked with other investors who had a contract to buy the land, that deal has expired and Orange Beach is now negotiating with a Birmingham attorney who represents Baldwin County Development.

Moon said the investors the city has been dealing with since the council authorized the mayor in July to bid on the land have asked for prices that have varied between $4.5 and $5.5 million.

"We have to offer, in my opinion, what the appraisal was," Blalock said. "It's not about what the market was, it's about what the market is."

Since the property -- five lots sitting near the terminus of Alabama 161 -- would be required for a bridge to be built, it could become subject of condemnation, in which the city would pay an appraised, not market, value of the property.

Such a process can involve an appeal of the appraised value, and it's not certain the $2 million price would stand as the amount the city would have to pay the landowners if Orange Beach tried to acquire the land through eminent domain proceedings, Blalock said.

Appraised values of property can be less than what land may fetch on the open market because, for one thing, appraisals may not take into account all development possibilities.

At one point a condominium project was proposed for the 2½ acres, but those plans have expired, city officials have said.

City officials also anticipate receiving in the next month a report from Figg Engineering that will examine the feasibility of a span over Wolf Bay.

Besides updating the decades-old plans for the bridge and the environmental impact of such a structure, the analysis will look at how far north a bridge-connected road must extend to be a viable hurricane evacuation route and attract sufficient traffic to justify construction. Also a topic of the study is how the city might pay for the bridge.

Recent estimates figure that a span linking Alabama 161 to thousands of undeveloped acres north of Wolf Bay could cost $60 million and there have been some discussions about charging a toll to use the bridge or working with private companies to build the project.