FAIRHOPE — A few yards into the Fairhope Triangle property, an improvised tarp-covered shelter houses shovels, rakes and other tools near bike trails on the city-owned site.

The trails and site were the work of private individuals building on public property without authorization, Fairhope officials said. City council members said that while the work does not appear to be intended as vandalism, such projects are not allowed on city property.

At a recent council work session, Councilman Jack Burrell said that while the Triangle is not developed, it is still under the same protections as established parks.

"If we let people get away with building a bike trail on public property, you can't stop anybody from putting whatever they want," Burrell said. "If I want to go to Henry George Park and put a bike trail there or on the four acres there on Bayview."

He said the work could set a precedent that could cause damage at other public sites.

"My problem is not so much this, but if someone wants to build a baseball diamond on an open field that's public property, we can't do that," Burrell said. "We lock the parks there at Volanta so people won't use the parks and we have all these other places that you can't really lock up, but it doesn't give people the right to go out there and build whatever recreational opportunity they want for themselves on city property."

Councilman Corey Martin said some of the people building trails were discovered. He said they did not intend to damage the park but were taking part in activities that are not allowed on city property.

"There were some children, no particular names," Martin said. "I don't think they were being destructive, but constructive, but just out of order in wanting to create a trail. From what I understand, they did a pretty good job, but that's neither here nor there. They did stop them."

Martin said one of the individuals discovered was asked to work with city committees on discussing uses for the park.

Mayor Sherry Sullivan said city representatives did find some of the individuals at work and confiscated their tools.

"I said just give them their tools back," Sullivan said. "To my knowledge, they've been up there riding the trails. I don't know if they've done anything additional."

Burrell said some of the work did destroy city trees and did not appear to have been done by juveniles.

"I do question whether it was just done by a bunch of kids, because there's a lot of trees that have been cut by chainsaws out there and you can see that somebody has used a chainsaw throughout that property to cut those trees," Burrell said. "I don't think those were kids. They had some help."

He said he does not want to prosecute the individuals, but the practice must stop.

"I said we're not trying to criminalize this," Burrell said. "We're not trying to get anybody in trouble, but you can't allow one person to do something and not allow everybody to do it. It will get you in trouble as a city. It's just a wrong precedent to set."

Martin said other work on wooded public property also appears to have been done by adults.

"There have been deer stands found out there as well from what I understand, so there's adults that go through there as well," Martin said. "We're not just going to blame it on kids."

Council President Jay Robinson said any work done on the property must be approved by the city.

"I don't think anybody would argue the fact that we can't have private citizens going out and making material changes to public property without permission from the council," Robinson said.

Fairhope bought the property known as the Dyas Triangle in 2014 after a legal dispute with the owners of the site over the development of the parcel at the intersection of U.S. 98, Section Street and the street now designated Triangle Drive, according to previous reports.

The city paid $8.75 million for the 108 acres after the owners sued Fairhope over being denied permission to develop the site.

The city received almost $1 million in funding through the federal Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, known as GOMESA, to develop the property as a nature park.

The GOMESA program provides money from offshore oil and gas production to states that allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.