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Orange Beach council approves Bayside Garages conditional use with 100‑year stormwater condition
Summary
After a lengthy public hearing on drainage and wetlands, the Orange Beach City Council approved a conditional-use permit for a 12-unit enclosed storage building at Pelican Place, making final approval contingent on a stormwater system that provides detention through the 100‑year storm event.
The Orange Beach City Council on the city’s May meeting voted to approve a conditional‑use request for the Bayside Garages project at Pelican Place with a new condition requiring the stormwater management system to provide detention through the 100‑year storm event.
The council heard a detailed presentation from city planning staff describing the North Building proposal — one single‑story, metal exterior self‑storage building of roughly 15,800 square feet on a 2.25‑acre parcel in the Mango Place subdivision — and read staff and planning‑commission recommended conditions, including a 20‑foot gated driveway to Pelican Place, south‑side buffering and landscaping, and wetlands permitting and mitigation as required by state and federal agencies.
Residents raised extensive concerns about flooding and drainage during a long public hearing. Ken Shepherd, a Woodland Drive resident, described standing water near his property and urged the council to pursue options to move water off neighborhood yards. “The water all backs up right here along the concrete walkway…you end up with all the growth and leaves and everything washes into it,” Shepherd said during public comment, urging the city to pursue practical fixes.
City Engineer Chris Babbitt told the council the wetlands in the area predate modern development and are mapped historically, and that options to relieve neighborhood flooding include engineered berms or negotiation with the State Park to obtain permission to extend an outfall farther south. “Those wetlands have existed since our earliest mapping,” Babbitt said, noting the U.S. Geological Survey showed the wetlands on maps dating to 1941.
Babbitt and the project engineer (representing the applicant) said the developer’s stormwater calculations could be designed to provide detention through the 100‑year storm — a higher standard than the city’s stormwater ordinance requires — and the council adopted an amendment to make that detention performance a condition of approval. Council members discussed the legal limits of denying development where code requirements are met and repeatedly said they wanted to avoid leaving property owners with no lawful options.
A roll‑call vote following the amendment recorded multiple affirmative votes and one abstention; transcript notes the abstention came from a member who said they had been involved with aspects of the design and therefore recused themselves from voting. The council directed staff and the city engineer to verify the stormwater calculations and to require details for Pelican Place roadway improvements, stormwater management and any required wetlands permits prior to final permitting.
The project will also be required to provide the buffering, screening, and tree species exchanges staff outlined; any wetlands impacts must be permitted with the Corps of Engineers and ADEM as required. Council members repeatedly told residents they would pursue further options with state agencies where permission is needed to extend outfalls.
Next steps: the project moves toward final permitting with the city’s conditions in place; staff will verify the 100‑year detention design and return documentation required for building permits.
