The Gulf Shores City Council is looking to reaffirm its commitment to the community with an updated parks and recreation master plan.

The document, discussed at a recent city council work session meeting, was initiated in June of 2017 and began with a comprehensive analysis of existing city parks and facilities, environmental conditions and developmental characteristics, and existing city planning documents.

Matt Young, Assistant Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, said the master plan would serve as a primary planning document for future parks and recreation expansion.

“Establishing standards is important for us so we know we’re providing and classifying parks and rec facilities in concert with the needs of the community,” Young said. “Integrating our vision, our land use plans and our bike and pedestrian plan was important with this because we envisioned a total parks system that includes all these features.”

The master plan’s findings and recommendations are based on a combination of community input derived from resident surveys, stakeholder and recreation committee workshops and staff’s technical analysis.

Recreation and Cultural Affairs Director Grant Brown said the document was vital to the city and to his department.

“You don’t know when you get to a place unless you know where you’re going,” Brown said. “The parks and recreation opportunities we provide as a city need to grow with the city.”

The Parks and Recreation Master Plan is available to the public to view at http://www.gulfshoresal.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6314/Parks-and-Recreation-Master-Plan.

Also discussed at the meeting were:

-Executing a professional services agreement with Barge Design Solutions (in an amount not to exceed $35,000) to complete survey and utility design services in conjunction with the previously approved roadway design contract for the extension of Commerce Drive in the Gulf Shores Business and Aviation Park. The city, along with the Airport Authority and Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, recruited Resicum International to locate its headquarters and construct a new aerospace MRO hangar facility at Jack Edwards Airport. The city subsequently was awarded an ALDOT Industrial Access Roadway and Bridge Grant to fund the construction of an approximately 900’ extension of Commerce Drive and has secured a verbal commitment for an additional grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to offset utility extension costs to access the site of Resicum’s new facility. These grant funds are intended to cover hard costs related to the roadway and utility construction but are not eligible to be used for design-related work. The proposal includes survey and utility design services to develop construction-ready plans necessary to complete the extension of water and sewer infrastructure within the entire unimproved portion of Commerce Drive.

-Executing a professional services agreement with Volkert to develop a corridor study for the RESTORE-funded ALDOT capacity project in an amount not to exceed $284,692. One area of particular concern for the city’s infrastructure is the east-west corridor from HWY 59 along SR 180 (Canal Road) to Orange Beach. Due to the complex nature of many project components, ALDOT has requested that the city manage the engineering and design process, including traffic studies, technical design development, and consideration of environmental, social, and economic impacts. This proposal is for a comprehensive corridor study to perform this preliminary design work, including coordination with state and federal agencies, analysis of design alternatives, costing and budget development, public outreach, and feasibility studies. This preliminary design work will inform and refine the final design work proposal, which will be presented for council consideration once the corridor study is complete.