After stalling the last time the measure was brought before the city council, Gulf Shores is pushing forward with an amendment to water access regulations.

In September, the City of Gulf Shores considered amending Article 6-9 Water Access to allow multi-family developments and subdivisions, with 20 units or fewer, to provide a minimum 100 feet beach access easement for developments located north side of Beach Boulevard through the Conditional Use Permit process.

At that time, the city did not reach a consensus on whether or not to advertise the proposal for a public hearing and the measure has been lying in wait since.

Richard Davis represented Little Lagoon Cottages, the applicant, at the meeting and requested the city move forward with the changes.

“My client has a problem, but we think that city has a problem,” Davis said. “’Small Town, Big Beach’ but you can’t get to the beach unless you’re in a particular area. What we thought we had done was create a good as it can be system for 20 or fewer units.”

Mayor Robert Craft said he was the one who felt more discussion was needed when this was brought before him last.

“We listened to a lot of compelling stories from folks who live down there, and I just did not believe that we had a consensus up here,” Craft said. “So, I wasn’t ready to go forward until I felt I knew this was something we needed to do.”

Councilman Joe Garris said this measure was presented as a way to prevent trespassing on beach-front properties, but that there was never going to be something what prevented trespassing.

Councilman Jason Dyken said he felt the council owed it to the applicant to have a public hearing.

“I’m not saying that I’m supporting one way or the other, but I think we owe it to the applicant to let the public comment and have a discussion,” Dyken said.

Rewind

Andy Bauer, Director of Planning and Zoning, brought the issue before the city council in September citing continuing problems with beach access.

“The city originally adopted the beach access regulations in 2005,” Bauer said. “The regulations restricted beach access from multi-family zoned property located on the north side of Beach Boulevard through single family/ duplex zoned property along the Gulf of Mexico. Although regulations have been adopted and are in place the primary issues still exist. People living or vacationing on the north side of Beach Boulevard continue to walk across the road to the beach and quite often this results in trespassing through private property abutting the Gulf. The city lacks public and private beach accesses for the dwelling units on the north side of Beach Boulevard.”

The Planning Commission recommended approval (9-0) for this zoning text amendment at their August 2018 meeting.

Since January 2006 the city has had numerous discussions on the subject of water access and

how to allow beach access without negatively impacting the neighboring properties. In 2006,

2008 and 2016 amendments were proposed to the zoning regulations but either failed or was

withdrawn.

Davis, a representative of the applicants of the zoning text amendment (Little Lagoon Cottages, Hercules Investments and West Beach) indicated in his narrative that water access by area residents and visitors is central to the city’s values. He said beach access is not readily available to many people and can lead to illegal parking, trespassing and destruction of the dunes.

Craft said the city is trying to solve the problem of people walking next to and around someone else’s house and spreading out over private property.

“They’d have 100 feet where they could go to, and, theoretically, that’s where they would stay,” Craft said. “We’re trying to solve the problem as much as possible. We’re not trying to sell more lots on the north side. We’re not trying to rezone anything. We’re just trying to solve issues of people trying to get to the beach and going through private property to get there.”