GULF SHORES — An amendment to the trash collection ordinance in Gulf Shores concerning placement of trash bins in and along the bicycle path on West Beach Boulevard was postponed by the city council.

Jon Walker, Gulf Shores City administrator, presented the topic at the Feb. 3 city work session meeting. He mentioned how issues with "trash bins being placed in the bike lane," or sometimes into the roadway, have been brought to the council's attention several times recently.

"We have a concern with both visual aesthetics as well as the safety of people using the bike lane, both pedestrians and cyclists," Walker said.

With three days of trash pickup coming to the area in the spring and summer, "there are several bins out there every day." Walker said the bins are "obstacles" requiring "automobiles to pay as close attention as individuals" when driving past condos and homes with bins set out. The proposed ordinance amendment will "eliminate curbside service," requiring full service, or "walk-up service," for the affected locations.

The main area where issues have been reported, Walker said, are the areas covered in the proposed amendment. It will affect trash collection from 100 to 2005 W. Beach Blvd., which is essentially from the Hwy. 59 intersection to the Mustique Condo down West Beach Boulevard.

Featured above are the lots on West Beach Boulevard that will be affected by the ordinance amendment.

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"If a Dumpster is used or if collection is not directly on West Beach Boulevard, these changes would not affect you," Walker said.

Walker explained how the amendment has three components. The first change is to the hours the cans are allowed to be placed on the road, changing to 7 p.m. the night before to 7 p.m. the day of collection.

The second change is that all containers "stored on the exterior of the premises" must be kept behind the building front line, the front part of a lot, not in between the road and the building unless the lot is larger than 1 acre.

If the lot is larger than 1 acre, the cans will be required to be "stored 100 feet from the public right of way."

The third component Walker mentioned is the change from roll out service to full-service trash collection by the Republic Services of Magnolia Springs ("Republic"). Republic would provide collection and return of waste bins to their location behind the building front line, "eliminating the need for curbside placement."

Walker said, if approved at the Feb. 10 meeting, this would go into affect on April 1. Residences affected by the ordinance change would be "required to pay an additional $25" monthly on their public service bills.

Mayor Robert Craft said, after Walker finished presenting the item at the Feb. 3 work session, he has received complaints "primarily from walkers or cyclists that have almost been run over."

Craft said if trash bins are sat "closer to the sand" or in the bike lane, cyclists have to go around the bins "one way or another" sometimes having to choose between getting in the road or in the sand.

"If you get in the sand in a bike there's a good chance you're going down," Craft said. "(The trash bin) creates a very dangerous obstacle for pedestrians and bicycles. This is something I think that is really mandatory for the safety of our residents that use those walkways and our visitors."

As the meeting was a work session, the topic was open to the public to discuss their thoughts on the ordinance amendment.

John "JP" Midkiff does not live on or around West Beach Boulevard but said he does "work down there frequently" with property management companies "constantly moving in and out, especially on check-in, check-out days." His concern is that, as with the current ordinance from his experience, some residents of the road have no regard for the rules concerning trash collection.

"The current ordinance states that the cans are to be 10 feet back from the bike path already, and I know that that's not happening obviously," Midkiff said. "So why are we putting in a new ordinance rather than enforcing the current ordinance?"

Walker corrected Midkiff, saying the ordinance reads "on trash day your cart has to be no more than 10 feet from the right of way." This came up later in the meeting as Councilman Gary Sinak asked if the current trash collection trucks could reach over 10 feet from the roadway.

Midkiff also had "a traffic concern," which he presented to the council.

Midkiff estimated about three minutes per property for the currently used curbside trash service. He is concerned with the trash now being a walk-up service that the time of stopped/slowed traffic will increase. He asked if a study had been completed "regarding the traffic implications" of the new ordinance "as opposed to the old ordinance."

Craft said he was "personally not aware of any studies" done by the city "other than the obvious paying attention."

"In reality, the safety of the pedestrians and the cyclists takes precedent over slow traffic in my mind," Craft said. "I know it's an inconvenience, but that's just an inconvenience. The other's dangerous, and we just didn't feel like there was an option that we felt like could protect those folks if we left those trash cans out there."

After Midkiff, Marlene Patterson spoke. She wanted to confirm that the only difference with the new ordinance is that Republic will be taking care of the trash collection rather than the property owners.

"There's probably 20 to 30 owners that are not pulling their cans back," Patterson said. "All the rest are getting their cans back. And I've called, over the years, because I've been on West Beach 15 years now, and I've called code enforcement to try to get them because there's a fine."

Patterson said she thinks if the fine, as detailed in the ordinance, were enforced that owners would ensure their cans were properly moved and stored.

"I don't think owners would do it if they lived here and they saw it all the time," Patterson said. "So, what I'm wondering is, why isn't the current ordinance enforced?"

Walker said the current ordinance allows cans to be on the property 24 hours before and after pick-up and, with three days of trash service, "you actually have six days that they're allowed on the road." With the amendment, the limit would be changed to 24-hour cycles for each pick-up day as it would be from 7 p.m. to 7 p.m. the next day.

Jon Walker, city administrator for Gulf Shores, presented the amendment to the trash ordinance at the Feb. 3 council work session.

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Craft said that a "vast majority of the people there are visitors" who likely don't know anything about the current or potential new ordinance.

Councilman Jason Dyken, who lives on West Beach Boulevard, said the issue is not with enforcing the code but rather "the code is defective" because of the three-day pick-up and the rule that allows extended times for the cans to be present.

Dyken said the main issue in the area is the "proliferation of larger homes, you know, really mini-hotels" that increase the density of people staying on that road and walking to and from the beach and businesses.

"There's trash cans out there all the time, and a lot of it's from owners who own the properties but don't live there and rent them out as vacation rentals," Dyken said, "which is fine and appropriate in their right to do so, but they're not actively engaged in taking the trash cans back on a regular basis and doing it, you know, conscientiously and (they're) creating an environment that is quite dangerous down there."

From his house, Dyken said, he has seen people walking and bicyclists meeting on the same lane of traffic at the same time there is a trash can in the lane, where "something's got to give, and usually it gives toward the road where cars are." He said "if you spend any time down West Beach" you could likely see the same scene.

Patterson questioned why the ordinance couldn't just be enforced on the ones who are not complying. Dyken said most of the owners aren't there 24/7, and while some properties have people who bring the cans to the road and back, "the issue is, it's voluntary."

"Every owner is not hiring that company to do that, so it's hit and miss," Dyken said. "Therefore, the problem is not getting solved by what we have in place now, unfortunately."

Patterson asked if something could be done to only apply to rental properties "like we do in some other instances, not trash related."

"That might be an option. Then, it's not going to cost all the owners that aren't not abiding by these ordinances to pay," Patterson said before sitting back down. "Why should, you know, 1,000 people pay because 20 people aren't doing something?"

Dyken said "there's a lot more than" 20 properties that are leaving their cans for extended periods in the bike lane right of way.

Jerry Hilkens has lived down West Beach Boulevard for 25 years, outside of the area that will be impacted by the ordinance, but he owns "a number of properties that's in this zone."

"Taking is what I would call it. Taking money, my money, to solve the problem, like this young lady said," Hilkens motioned to Patterson as he said, "for 10 or 15 or 20 houses. Going to sting everybody on both sides of West Beach Boulevard for a couple lives."

Hilkens said he has been fined by the city for not pulling his cans back to the required space in the designated amount of time, as required by the current ordinance. He asked if the $25 were going to be charged per can, building or unit. He was concerned because he has 23 units in 13 buildings, some with several cans.

Walker confirmed that it will be $25 per residence so any units already receiving bills will have a $25 per month increase per bill, as specified in the contract with Republic.

"It works out to be $300 a year per residence for Republic services to provide someone to come to your house, get (the trash) whether it's one can or five cans, bring those to the street, take that trash and then take them back to your house," Walker said.

Hilkens said he thinks there should be some kind of renter-specific protocol with fines, despite being a rental property owner himself.

He said the rental owners will "get the message when you fine them. If they live there, they'll get the message when you mail it to them. I'm all for what you're trying to do, it's just you've got to do the complete job."

Hilkens said he was upset he was going to be charged the $25 for Republic service, which he called a fine, and he as the property owner would be responsible if any renters left trash out around the cans, as he confirmed Republic would not pick up the "beer bottles and beer cans" and etcetera that "renters in this property might throw" around.

At the Feb. 10 council meeting, Walker announced that the vote for the trash ordinance amendment will be voted on “in the next cycle” of council meetings.

“We’re going to pull those off today and spend a little bit more time reviewing that,” Walker said at the Feb. 10 meeting, “… with some other proposed potential changes to (the trash and waste collection ordinance) including changing the collection or the times that trash bins are allowed to be on the street and reducing those hours.”

Craft said, “That shows we had a lot of discussion last Monday in the meeting related to all of this and there were a lot of questions that we have not answered and we realized we’ve got more work to do.”

Craft thanked those who spoke at the work session for making their views known and restated that the item will be discussed at the Feb. 17 work session and the vote will be moved to the next council meeting, scheduled for Feb. 24.