So many proposals for new condo developments and marinas in the Gulf Shores area are on the table it's attracting the interest of residents and regulators. The concern is the sum total of the impact these proposed developments might have on the area.
Do they make it more vulnerable to storms? Are there too many economic eggs in one basket? What about the environment and preserving the natural beauty of the area? These are among the questions being asked and debated.
Residents mull over Intracoastal development
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could set regulations on condos, marinasGULF SHORES -- Beth Via stood in front of a sketch of proposed condo developments along the Intracoastal Waterway and scratched notes on a legal pad Tuesday night.
"There's so many reasons for not paving over this," she said. "Hurricane evacuation, habitat destruction, wildlife destruction, traffic and safety on the waterway. Isn't that enough?"
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had invited south Baldwin residents to help determine the effect -- both economic and environmental -- of thousands of planned condos and boat slips developers want to build along the waterway.
David Hobbie, chief of the Corps of Engineers Mobile District, said input from the public would be vital to an environmental impact statement.
"Even though we have identified an issue, they have some concerns about that issue," Hobbie said. "The most valuable information comes from the general public because you've got people who've been in this area their whole life, they know stuff that ... we have buried somewhere but we just haven't thought about.
"We need to try to gather that information as we move forward with this process."
The corps will likely release a rough draft of the statement by the spring and hold another public meeting after that information is made public, he said.
The study will look at the impact of 14 mixed-use development proposals -- most in Gulf Shores -- along a roughly five-mile stretch of the Intracoastal that include more than 5,644 condo units, 1,780 wet boat slips and 1,822 boat storage spaces, according to a program at the Tuesday event.
"We want to take a step back and take a good look, so when we come to this conclusion and there is a limit, everybody knows," Hobbie said.
Federal regulators would lay the ground rules by the winter of 2008, Hobbie said.