DAPHNE, Ala.—Groundbreaking on Bayside Academy’s performing-arts center will have to wait as a motion to accept the project’s site plan failed to carry a majority vote at Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting.

Commissioners voted the project down 3-1, with two members abstaining; four votes were needed to adopt the measure, according to city attorney, Jay Ross.

Commissioner Victoria Phelps said she voted “nay” because she was concerned with the construction’s perceived impact to historical artifacts believed to be located in a stream on the school’s campus.

“I don’t believe that this project, as presented, is in accordance with the city of Daphne’s management plan,” Phelps said.

She cited the projected loss of trees, the physical adjustment to the bluff and changes to the natural environment.

The 20.8-acre site is located on a bluff, a patch of land overlooking Mobile Bay.

The city suggested Bayside move the site to a location in Belforest, thereby avoiding any impact to the coastline. Bayside already has a sports facility located in this unincorporated area east of Daphne.

“This is a theater with a performing stage, 400 fixed seats, classrooms,” architect Bruce Knodel said. “It’s really set up to allow Bayside to have performances that will be attended by people on the Eastern Shore.”

He added that the building will also be used as an educational complex, the main reason why his team rejected the city’s idea of moving the site to Belforest.

See the rest of this story in the May 30 Daphne Bulletin.