ORANGE BEACH — Orange Beach City Council met on Tuesday, June 2, where The Wharf Landing project took a step forward while Pirates Voyage took another step back.

During the meeting, the proposed Pirates Voyage project was deferred for a third and final time by the applicant. A public hearing and first reading before city council will now take place on July 21.

With the deferral, the project will once again have to be discussed by the planning commission before it can move to a city council vote. Although it was listed as part of the June 8 planning commission agenda, Ford Handley, city administrator and finance director, told GCM that it will likely be discussed at a future planning commission meeting to be determined.

As previously reported by GCM, the proposed development would rezone more than 24 acres along Orange Beach Boulevard for a planned unit development for a 59,000-square-foot Pirates Voyage dinner theater during its initial phase. The proposal drew widespread public opposition at a town hall meeting last month over concerns about traffic, drainage, environmental impacts and compatibility with nearby neighborhoods.

As for other developments, Orange Beach City Council adopted an
ordinance rezoning 28 acres in the Margaritaville planned unit development from general business to single-family residential for a new subdivision called The Wharf Landing, which will include 142 lots with houses ranging from two to five bedrooms.

The new residential district is part of a larger Margaritaville Resort project located across the Intracoastal Waterway from The Wharf shopping and entertainment district. The rezoning ordinance was approved unanimously, with Councilman Jeff Silvers not present during Tuesday's meeting and Mayor Tony Kennon abstaining.