DAPHNE, Ala. — Concerned residents were allowed to speak at the city council work session Monday night to discuss their concerns with the city’s possible purchase of the Ennis property near Campbell Swamp. During work sessions, public participation typically does not occur.

Donna Ballard — whose property is adjacent to the property the city is contemplating purchasing — expressed concerns that if the city purchased the property, her way of life would be in jeopardy. She told the council she was concerned about the city’s plans for the property.

“I am very concerned about this because what is the ultimate use that the city is going to use this for? Where do I stand? I am in wetlands as well…I want to live in my home.

 “It is a peaceful and quiet neighborhood. (If) you develop it, you are bringing noise, pollution. It is clean as it is. It was fine when the water department owned that property. I don’t want to move, but if you make that public use, I don’t want to be there,” Ballard said.

The future particularly concerned the resident.

“Can you protect us from the next people that sit in those (City Hall) seats?” she said, referring to potentially unfavorable proposals. “They may have something totally different. They may want to develop something on the beach itself.”

Paul Quinn, who also owns adjacent property, spoke out.

“I am really interested in what the plans would be for the property. I heard walkways mentioned, and parking lots. What kind of timeline are we talking about and the property became vacant how long before the house is demolished? That is my concern,” Quinn said.

The city has been contemplating the purchase for months, but the purchase has not been formally approved for the property, which has been appraised at a worth of more than $1 million. The purchase is contingent upon the city receiving funds through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment funds, which are fines imposed upon those responsible for the gulf oil spill last year.

City clerk David Cohen told the council he attended a meeting regarding the NRDA funds available for Alabama, which currently total $100 million. Funds allocated to Alabama are expected to increase later. The funds must be used to preserve or improve nature to rectify what happened to the Gulf of Mexico because of the oil spill. Cohen said the Ennis property would qualify as preservation of wetlands.

“The fact that the city can preserve wetlands to foster good stewardship of the land and accomplish many goals as far as storm-water drainage that has occurred throughout the city,” Cohen said, is justification for using the funds on this action.

The city council has opted to not make an offer on the Ennis property until NRDA funds have been approved.

Exact plans for the Ennis property, if purchased, have not been finalized, but members of the council have expressed interest in creating a public access to the bay on the property, creating a boardwalk, or simply preserving the property from future development to improve storm-water runoff. If the city purchases the property, the city plans to remove the house and driveway on the property.

“For the council’s benefit, the building and property committee did not make a favorable recommendation on this. In a nutshell, we wanted this to come to the council. The concern was, and I particularly had a concern that, using very rough figures, the property is appraised at $1 million; half of it or more than half is for the building. While I think there is a lot of merit for acquiring the property and access to the bay, we could not come up with something good to do with that house. Even using somebody else’s money, it did not seem appropriate to pay half a million dollars for a house we are going to give away or tear down,” Councilman August Palumbo said.

Cohen said the city was advised to find as many projects for NRDA funds as possible to apply for. Local business owner Kevin Spriggs suggested that the city consider purchasing property behind the Hooter’s restaurant on U.S. Highway 98. The council chose to keep looking into possibilities.

Councilman John Lake said he was not against the purchase of the Ennis property and he thinks the city needs to use the opportunity to use NRDA funds to preserve nature.

“When it comes to buying bayfront property for the community, I think it is important. This is a wetland tract of a property which serves multiple purposes because it allows for storm-water runoff. When we are looking at this piece of property, the one thing we have to look at is this is not going to be unlike the Village Point Park. It would not be a city park — more of a community park,” Lake said. “I am not against it, especially when you look at the bay front. That is one of the reasons we live here on the Eastern Shore, is to look at the sunset over Mobile Bay. The only way you can do that is have property.”