ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — A representative of Save Our Alabama Parks (SOAP) appeared before the Baldwin County Commission this week and asked commissioners to stand up against what she called a “powerful contingency of government officials, politicians, private business owners and developers” she believes have formulated a plan to build a highway through protected wetlands in Gulf State Park.

Maggie Mosteller of Fairhope said the “Southern Evacuation Parkway,” a proposed route that would be the last connector between the beach and Interstate 65, would disturb, even destroy, “some of the finest and most pristine wetlands in Alabama.”

Mosteller’s appearance before the commission came a little over two weeks after Orange Beach City Councilwoman Tracy Holiday appeared before commissioners at a work session to give an update on the Southern Evacuation Parkway on behalf of the City of Orange Beach and the city council.

Mosteller cited a document she said is on file in Orange Beach called “Alternative Analysis Southern Evacuation Route Extension.” According to Mosteller, the document states that a new north-south roadway will, first, enhance the growth of the beach area and, secondly, provide an alternative hurricane evacuation route to Ala. Highway 59.

Holiday, during a telephone interview on Thursday, said she hasn’t been able to find the document to which Mosteller alluded on Tuesday. She has city staff looking for the document, she said.

Holiday, who describes herself as a “huge environmentalist,” said she understands Mosteller’s and SOAP’s concerns about the roughly two mile roadbed in question, and said Mosteller’s concerns would probably be valid in times past. But polarization now - turning the issue into a black and white one — won’t help today, Holiday said.

In her estimation, in five years or so the state and probably the county is going to experience what Holiday calls a “backlash” when tourists coming to local beaches can’t get where they’re going due to traffic and start going to other resort locations elsewhere.

“That is a roadbed and it won’t be a difficult story to tell when tourism dollars start getting affected,” said Holiday of the pressure she expects to build to pave the road should tourism be impacted. “It’s scary to me,” she said, noting she walks and runs through the park on a regular basis.

“If it were wilderness I’d be much more comfortable it wouldn’t be done,” Holiday said of the roadbed being paved.

Already, traffic along the roadbed by Orange Beach Water Authority and other concerns is impacting the wetlands, Holiday said.

Besides SOAP’s allegations that the drive behind the Southern Evacuation Parkway is to enhance growth and development in Orange Beach, Mosteller also told commissioners it makes little sense to “build the bottom end of an evacuation highway only to create a bottleneck at the top end,” a reference to the Foley Beach Express coming out on Highway 59 south of Summerdale.

Holiday said it’s a “no-brainer” that the proposed Parkway would help The Wharf and enhance the toll bridge and provide other financial opportunities, but first and foremost the proposal is a hurricane evacuation route, she said.

“You can’t just not do anything because we have a bottleneck on (Highway) 59,” she said, noting Orange Beach’s public safety goal would be met in getting people moved off the beach in case of a hurricane.

“It is a traffic solution,” Holiday said of the elevated roadway Orange Beach is proposing to build over the Gulf State Park wetlands.

Holiday, who has given numerous presentations on the Southern Evacuation Parkway, said she would be happy to do the same for SOAP members.

In Mosteller’s address to commissioners on Tuesday, she noted it was her understanding that no administration prior to Gov. Riley’s has ever supported a highway through Gulf State Park. She also noted there are other possible routes that could serve as an evacuation highway.

“Why not promote ecotourism for our Gulf State Park instead of allowing private developers … to continue trying to wrestle away our public lands under the guise of a so-called ‘Southern Evacuation Parkway’,” Mosteller said.