ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – At what was expected to be a benign third reading of an ordinance to make changes involving the Phoenix West II planned unit development, a rousing dilemma was stirred up at Tuesday’s council meeting.

In an almost hour-long discussion, council members and the mayor went back and forth in a civil but lively discussion about whether Brett Robinson should provide public amenities it agreed to back in 2005.

Those include a pedestrian bridge, a strip of land for public beach access and a $2 million payment toward the cross island connecter proposed through Gulf State Park.

“You don’t take things away from the public to make it easy on them because they’ve gotten what they wanted and that’s not right,” Councilwoman Joni Blalock said. “They’ve gotten their building, they’ve gotten their units, they’ve gotten their density.”

Mayor Tony Kennon said if the city doesn’t agree to the changes, Brett Robinson has the favorable legal stance if a lawsuit followed. He favors the compromise changes over lengthy litigation.

“Suffice to say there’s going to be lots of employment for lots of lawyers,” City Attorney Wanda Cochran said. “I don’t think anybody wants that. I think the legal threat is real and it’s possible. That doesn’t mean that its 100 percent.”

Citing the economic downturn followed closely by the 2010 summer of the oil spill, the company said if the changes are not approved, it cannot afford to finish the project.

“The economy and everything hit everyone at the same time,” Blalock noted.

One change is the elimination of a pedestrian bridge to the Village of Tannin, across beach road from Phoenix West II. Residents say they were promised a pedestrian bridge to access the beach.

Mayor Tony Kennon said the bridge was contingent upon completion of the Phoenix project and a commercial development in Tannin called Georgetown and was never a promise to residents.

“Tannin residents weren’t involved,” Kennon said. “This agreement was strictly between Tannin Inc., which I believe is George Gounares, he and Brett Robinson, for a bridge to connect Phoenix West II to Georgetown. Phoenix West II would market Georgetown as an amenity for their potential owners and guests.”

Councilman Jeff Silvers disagreed, reading from what he said was part of the original ordinance from 2005:

“There is record from 2005 on the pedestrian bridge and ramp system,” Silvers said. “The project proposed a pedestrian bridge over Perdido Beach Boulevard. The bridge was to be located on the western part of the project and would provide residents – residents – of the Village of Tannin access and the public beach access.”

Brett Robinson told the planning commission and the council it doesn’t want to pay $2 million to the road fund and also wants to scale back amenities on a public easement/access next to the 30-plus story complex.

Instead, the company, which is the city largest employer, agrees to pay about $1.5 million in impact fees based on a per unit amount. But the money will be paid in monthly installments during a five-year period.

The payments would begin only after the city issues the final certificate of occupancy for the 358-unit complex. Its completion date is expected no sooner than 2013.

Councilmembers indicated they have been getting lots of calls saying the city was “letting Brett Robinson off the hook.”

“And to me to ask them to do what they said they were going to go isn’t anything but saying ‘put your money where your mouth is.’” Councilman Brett Holk said. “If you’re going to talk big, build big. That’s what they said they would do to go into that residential neighborhood and do what they wanted to do.”

Holk, who is the council’s member on the planning commission, cast the lone dissenting vote in a 5-1 recommendation from the commission to grant the changes.

Kennon said, in hindsight, maybe the building didn’t turn out to be such a good idea.

“It doesn’t fit in and it was a mistake,” Kennon said.

Now his focus, he says, is not on what was promised and what is or is not completed, but on getting the city the best compromise under current conditions.

“It’s not about whether Brett Robinson is a good guy or a bad guy or whether they are broke or not,” he said. “It is can they sue us and win and can we lose a whole bunch of money and possibly more.”

Kennon reasons if Brett Robinson sues and wins, then every complex built in the city that provided public improvements could line up to sue for their money back as well.

“Their position was ‘you could not do that to us,’” Kennon said. “And according to our legal folks, in the state of Alabama if that was agreed upon and it was illegal, we can’t hold them to it.

“I don’t want to be involved with our largest employer in a suit for years to come. I just don’t think that’s in the best interest of the city.”

“If that’s their philosophy then can’t they go back to Phoenix I and ask for every public benefit back?” Councilmember Pattisue Simpson asked.

“Bingo!” the mayor replied.

“But can they also not show by consistency over the years ... they showed a habitual performance of giving a public benefit?” Simpson asked again. “So obviously they don’t have a problem with it.”

In the end, Kennon said, it comes down to the city getting the money from impact fees or nothing.

“In exchange for eliminating the crossover we were moving to $1.5 million that was going to the city, directly to the city instead of the cross island parkway,” Kennon said.