Consultant: Baldwin County will grow faster than ever

Originally published by the Mobile Press Register

About 50 people attended two public meetings on comprehensive plan

Sunday, September 30, 2007
By VIRGINIA BRIDGESStaff Reporter

ROBERTSDALE -- "Have you seen much change since 1970?" Bob Gray asked an audience of about 30 Baldwin County residents last week.

The few in the room who have lived in this growing county since then responded with a definite "yes."

One person called out, "Crime, the traffic, insurance and taxes."

Another said: "They are building on top of us."

Gray, a consultant with the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Genesis Group that was hired to compile a comprehensive plan for Baldwin, was relaying the importance of planning for future growth to shape the development he said will come to this county faster than ever.

Gray and other consultants explained the elements of the plan and sought insight from residents at two public meetings last week on how the county should look in 2025.

About 50 residents total attended the meetings in Robertsdale and Bay Minette, said Wayne Dyess, director of the county's Planning and Zoning Department.

Gray said that since 1970, the county's population has increased by about 110,000 people. He predicted the number of Baldwin residents would jump by at least that many in the next 17 years, pointing to a national population that is increasing faster than ever, new industry coming to the state and region, and baby boomers moving to the sunny South.

"When you look at the population around you doubling or tripling, how is it going to be?" Gray asked.

And that is the exact vision the county is trying to establish in the document meant to prepare for and influence future development, county officials said.

Citizens' concerns centered on maintaining rural areas, preserving farmland and directing high-density developments toward the more urban areas, Dyess said.

Other topics mentioned at the Robertsdale meeting included traffic and preserving historic areas.

Consultants will combine like comments and develop statements on the different issues, Dyess said. The statements will be put on a Genesis Web site for review, and additional comments will be invited, Dyess said.

Genesis Group will work to finish the document, estimated to cost $280,000, by early 2008, Dyess said.

Public hearings will be held before the Planning and Zoning Commission and the County Commission, which will take final action on approving, altering or turning down the plan.
Edna Earl Prescott, who has been visiting Baldwin for years, became a permanent resident about two years ago, she said.

She wasn't surprised about the predicted increase in Baldwin's population, she said.

"I have seen it. I have been coming down here over 50 years," she said. "It has just been -- my word -- I can't believe it."

Prescott, a retired Jefferson County teacher, said she thought the consultants were knowledgeable and that the meeting was well planned -- although it was "a little bit long." She was, however, disappointed by the low turnout at the Tuesday night meeting in Robertsdale.
Prescott, a Fort Morgan peninsula resident, said she is concerned about development's impact on the environment, specifically wetlands.

Over time she has watched wetlands near her home dry up, as new condominium towers shift the landscape -- affecting more than the views blocked by the buildings, she said.
Now, instead of birds visiting the area, "we have mosquitoes," she said.

By the end of this week, Genesis Group officials plan to post information and take comments on Baldwin County's comprehensive plan at

www.GenesisGroup.com/BaldwinCounty.

Baldwin will grow faster than ever, consultant says.