City eyes Old River launch

Faced with protests from Ono, state officials hesitant to allow facility

Friday, September 21, 2007
By RYAN DEZEMBERStaff Reporter

ORANGE BEACH -- City officials unveiled plans this week for a $2 million public boat launch on a state-owned tract, but Alabama's top conservation official said he's unsure whether he'll approve the Perdido Key project amid protests from some Ono Island residents.

At a public meeting Tuesday night, about 70 people viewed plans for the facility, which would include five ramps into Old River just across the waterway from the western tip of the gated island community. City officials have long contended that a third public launch is needed to relieve overcrowding at facilities on Boggy Point and Cotton Bayou.

On busy summer weekends, it's not uncommon for boat trailers to be parked haphazardly along roads leading to the ramps.

"We've counted an 80-trailer overflow," said Phillip West, the city's coastal resources manager.
Designs for the Old River facility call for the 5-acre tract to include 112 parking spaces, all but a dozen of which would be reserved for boat trailers. City officials originally planned to include 175 parking spaces, but scaled back the plans to include more landscaping and assuage concerns of overcrowding, West said.

"Since the very beginning we've tried to make this site attractive, we've tried to use native landscaping and vegetation and berms to elevate that landscaping to create a screening effect from the highway, from the water, from across at Ono Island," West said. "We've really tried to be sensitive to the fact that people really don't like to see parking."

The plants would be predominately sand live oaks, palmettos and sea oats, West said. And since the facility will be open only during daylight hours during the spring and summer months, lighting would be minimal if not entirely absent, West said.

It would be a pay-to-use facility, likely free to Orange Beach residents, and will be managed day-to-day by a city employee, West said.

Answering written questions from the meeting's attendees, West and Mayor Pete Blalock addressed issues that mainly surrounded the location the city's selected. Some asked if there weren't ways to expand the current launch sites.

Blalock said Cotton Bayou, home to private marinas as well as the public launch, is already congested with boat traffic and Boggy Point can't be enlarged because it's surrounded by wetlands.

"People are going to bring their boats down here whether we like it or not; we have to have a place for them to launch from," the mayor said. "It's going to cost money to have this done but it's our obligation, living on the coast."

West said City Hall consulted scientists with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management about the best place to put a launch in terms of water quality, and the Old River spot, which is near Perdido Pass, was said to be a good spot because it flushes better than the dead-end Cotton Bayou.

Several of Tuesday's audience members spoke in favor of the plan.

There was little outright opposition to the plan Tuesday and skeptics tended to be concerned more with traffic along Alabama 182 than the water or aesthetics. Though opponents weren't vociferous at the meeting, their concerns have reached the ears of decision-makers in Montgomery.

Alabama Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley said in an interview Wednesday, "We're getting lots of e-mails in opposition to that boat launch mainly from Ono Island."
Lawley, who said he's not yet seen the specific designs, said the concerns deal mostly with traffic issues, both on the water and the highway.

"We're kind of waiting to see if Orange Beach is able to pacify those complaints with some sort of compromise," Lawley said. "No one can say if this will alleviate the (overcrowding) problem or if more boats would just be launching."

ORANGE BEACH

"People are going to bring their boats down here whether we like it or not; we have to have a place for them to launch from."-- Mayor Pete Blalock

"We're getting lots of e-mails in opposition to that boat launch mainly from Ono Island. ... We're kind of waiting to see if Orange Beach is able to pacify those complaints with some sort of compromise."-- State Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley

Orange Beach officials hope to build a $2 million boat launch facility on Perdido Key at Old River. Located east of the Caribe Resort on Gulf State Park property, the manned facility would include five ramps and 112 parking spaces.

The proposed public boat launch site on Old River overlooks a portion of Ono Island. Some of those Ono Island residents oppose the plan and have lobbied state officials not to lease the land to the city.