GULF SHORES — A tentative alternative may be in the offing to route traffic to a new development on the Intracoastal Waterway by using what was once deemed "denied access" under the state's new bridge over the canal.

According to officials, that was the plan all along until they were recently changed to mark Geno Road neighborhood as the access point for the 46-home development.

Neighbors voiced concerns at the city, county and state level, and state Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) said a recent meeting with Alabama Department of Transportation officials may have produced a solution.

"What we're going to do is try and figure out a way for them to attach to that road and leave the Geno people alone," Elliott said. "On top of that, we're going to require an agreement from the City of Gulf Shores and the county that says they will never attach Geno Road to that land and they have to go the other way."

It's still on the drawing board, Elliott said, and the plan is not set in stone.

"But the details need to be worked out," Elliott said. "We've been working on that. I had a meeting with (ALDOT Director) John Cooper on Tuesday. Mayor (Robert) Craft went up there. (Mayor Pro Tempore) Philip Harris went up there at my request to try to see if we could get them to allow access."

Neighbors remain skeptical but hopeful.

"I'll believe it when I see it," resident Scooter Fredrickson said.

Elliott said it's good to be cautious because it's far from a done deal.

"This is not necessarily what's going to be built, but at least it's an idea," Elliott said. "It's a conceptual rendering. It might not look this, and it may not even fly, but at least it will help people understand what's going on and what's not."

Gulf Shores has been working to make Waterway Boulevard East a four-lane road from the new bridge to west of Saunders Yachtworks. The portion nearest the bridge is complete while work continues on the rest of the new roadway.

"You can stand on the bridge and spit on that road," Elliott said. "It was always kind of designed to go back north, but when Cooper decided to make that a southbound-only bridge it kind of left them without a plan."

Both Craft and Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon are against making the new bridge southbound only and the former toll bridge road northbound only.

The rendering of how the access road under the bridge might look calls for a spur off that road to a north-south road east of the road leading up to the bridge and then another spur off of it to reach The Cove subdivision.

"Another factor, of course, was that parcel, that triangular big parcel just south of Geno Road," Elliott said. "Cooper was kind — I'm going to say that — in acquiescing and understanding the situation. But let them bring that road under the denied access under the bridge. Then essentially construct a service road of some sort or other along the now-built new road that's southbound only."

One of the concerns about the Geno Road access plan was traffic from the 46-home subdivision would come out on County Road 4 or Cotton Creek Drive with just a stop sign at the north end of Geno.

"That gets all that traffic back up to one signalized intersection there at County Road 4," Elliott said. "The benefit of that is that it goes right by that triangular piece of property when it comes under the bridge to handle that south of Geno Road. That's for two reasons. One, it keeps the Geno Road people happy, but, two, it doesn't put all that traffic back out on County Road 4 on an unsignalized interchange. That could be a problem."