Orange Beach — Developers are submitting two plans on parcels once ceded to the city — and still listed as owned by the city — as conditions required to win approval of the Turquoise Place tower planned unit development.

The parcels are a 90-foot right of way and beach access directly west of the opulent towers and a 6-acre tract across the street from towers and fronting Cotton Bayou. They are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Larry Wireman and Turquoise Properties to reclaim the properties and a $400,000 "development fee" requested by the city as a condition of giving the go-ahead to build Turquoise.

At the Dec. 11 Orange Beach Planning Commission meeting, Wireman and October Investments presented a plan for a seven-story condo building with 90 units on Cotton Bayou that would include boat slips for use by owners in the development. On the 90-foot tract, developers hope to put a three-story building with two units.

Both tracts are still listed in Baldwin County tax records as being owned by the city. Wireman, Turquoise Properties and the city are currently in negotiations to settle the lawsuit. October Investments is listed as the owner of eight parcels south and east of the 6-acre Cotton Bayou tract, and the three easternmost run from Perdido Beach Boulevard to frontage on the bayou.

They were first turned over to the city in 2010 with conditions placed upon them by the contract with Turquoise Properties.

According to the January 2020 filing, "The Cotton Bayou Tract Deed provides that the Cotton Bayou Tract will 'automatically revert' to Turquoise Properties LLC as grantor if it is not used exclusively for: (a) public recreational and related purposes, and (b) the construction and maintenance of a municipal fire station, police station or public safety facility. The Cotton Bayou Tract has not been used as required, and Turquoise Properties LLC, as grantor, has not consented to the defendant's alternative use."

The beach front parcel deed was to be for "pedestrian and vehicular access to the Gulf of Mexico, the adjacent public beach and adjacent properties for beach maintenance and for police, fire and emergency purposes, and (b) use by the public for pedestrian access between Alabama Highway No 182 and the Gulf of Mexico."

The filing says this property has not been used as intended in the deed and should also revert back to Turquoise Properties. Baldwin county tax records value the Cotton Bayou parcel at $1.8 million and the beachfront tract at $2.1 million.

It also alleges that the $400,000 development fee wasn't used as intended and the plaintiffs are seeking repayment of the money.

Orange Beach City Administrator Ford Handley said the city will have no comment on the lawsuit until negotiations are complete and a settlement reached.