ORANGE BEACH — Roscoe Road may see the addition of a 60-unit townhouse subdivision.

The Orange Beach Planning Commission recommended the approval of rezoning a property on Roscoe Road from a Multi-Family Residential Low Density (RM-1) lot to Planned Unit Development (PUD).

The 39-plus-acre property is located 700 feet north of the intersection of Roscoe Road and the Foley Beach Express on the west side, and it has had its site plan approved for the 10 buildings and 60 units. If ultimately approved by Orange Beach City Council, the subdivision will be a single onsite apartment management firm with a pool and clubhouse amenities.

According to the Orange Beach zoning ordinance, an RM-1 district, which is what the site is currently zoned as, is “for the development of duplexes, cluster homes, townhouses and apartments within a suitable residential environment.”

The zoning ordinance defines a PUD district as “intended to provide flexibility in densities, setbacks, uses, open space and other bulk and area requirements for property that would otherwise be mandated by the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations.”

This will allow for the townhome subdivision development to get more rentable units on the same property and not have as many requirements for building regulations (such as distance between units) as laid out in the zoning ordinance.

The recommendation by the planning commission approves the preliminary and the final PUD.

The planning commission's vice chairperson, Kathy Lindsey, confirmed with the engineer representing the project that the purpose for the request to the planning commission is so the units can be sold individually.

It was also confirmed that the new projections include a fence screen around the two onsite dumpsters as required for PUDs.

The representative of Lieb Engineering Company, the company over the project on behalf of Bailey Shivers, reassured commissioners and meeting attendees that there would be ample parking spaces with two spaces for each unit and 70 additional spaces throughout the development.

The next step for the development is for the rezoning application to be approved, with conditions or denied by city council within 90 days of the Nov. 12 planning commission meeting. Once approved, construction on the lot will be able to start.