GULF SHORES — Gulf Shores will not accept any new site plans for multifamily and townhouse projects for the next six months, following action by the City Council.

The council voted unanimously, Monday, Feb. 28, to approve a 180-day moratorium on accepting proposals for the developments. Lee Jones, director of planning and community development, said city officials need time to prepare for expected growth.

"In light of recent events, we're requesting a pause in site plan applications for townhouse development and multi-family developments," Jones told council members.

Right now, traffic on two major highways in Gulf Shores, Alabama 59 and Alabama 180 East, is above capacity during much of the year, Jones said. The city has 1,806 acres of undeveloped property with the potential for much more growth and traffic.

"Those undeveloped properties could yield, based on current entitlements, about 23,000 units," Jones said. "That number is nearly double the number of units that currently exist in Gulf Shores today of any type. So, it would have quite an impact on our infrastructure."

He said traffic on other roads could be at the same level if growth continues.

"When you look at these entitlements, if they were to build out, every major roadway in our community would be above capacity and would be in a deficient state, so we really need to take a step back and try to come up with a plan for how we can allow these current entitlements address our infrastructure needs if those properties do build out," Jones said.

Mayor Robert Craft said the city has to prepare for upcoming growth.

"There's things we know, and we know that we have unsustainable traffic issues today and when you look at uncontrolled rapid growth overwhelming that, it is not something that we can just sit here and let happen," Craft said. "We have to be prepared and there are things we don't know. We don't know about sewer capacity or water capacity. Those are things we don't know, but the sustainable quality of life for us, our visitors, for everybody, is something we've got to pay attention to."

"I wish this is something we'd done several years ago," the mayor added.

Councilman Phillip Harris, who is also a member of the Gulf Shores Planning Commission, said the commission worked to develop the land-use plan. He said the city's current zoning regulations do not allow officials to always fit proposed development with the plan.

"I think I'm speaking on behalf of the Planning Commission that this type of overview and a process for amendment would be welcome to help us do a better job at what we do in reviewing those plans," Harris said.

Jones said the city not only needs to plan how growth could affect infrastructure such as roads as well as sewer and water service, but also to fit development with the city's land-use plan.

"I feel like we need to take some time to look at both our infrastructure and how these developments might impact our infrastructure as well as marrying these developments up with our land-use plan, with our Vision 2025 Plan," Jones said.

The Vision 2025 Plan calls for a mixture of housing types and price levels, a network of streets and open spaces, buildings placed on streets with parking in the rear and a "holistic design" approach that develops appropriate in scale density and context," Jones said.
He said current city land-use regulations do not require developers to conform to the standards of the plan.

"The land-use plan tells us you need to go out and make your subdivision regulations and your zoning ordinance in line with what your vision is for your community," Jones said. "We don't have all the answers, but we're requesting some time in order to look at these issues that are brought up by the land-use plan and how we can implement those into our zoning ordinance."