Neighborhood meetings set in Gulf Shores

Originally Published by the Mobile Press Register

Link: http://www.al.com/news/press-register/baldwin.ssf?/base/news/1248340607290740.xml&coll=3

Gulf Shores officials want better understanding of residential areas, input for five-year plan

Thursday, July 23, 2009

By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
GULF SHORES — Over the next few months, municipal officials plan to hold a series of neighborhood meetings in which they'll visit residents in six parts of town in an effort not only to learn about issues within each area, but also to gain input on the city's future.

"We've had town hall meetings and they're good meetings, but generally the representation there is the same people," Mayor Robert Craft said Monday during a City Council work session. "We've decided that if we're going to create a strategic plan for the future of this city — what do we want this city to look like five years from now? — then we need a variety of neighborhood meetings for input."

The entire council and some employees will attend each meeting "not just to answer questions but to get to know the neighborhoods and the people in them better," according to a news release from the mayor's office.

The first such meeting, intended for residents who live north of the Intracoastal Waterway and east of Ala. 59, is scheduled for

9 a.m. Aug. 1 at the Craft Farms clubhouse.

The other neighborhoods are:

The area north of the Intracoastal Waterway and west of Ala. 59, including Plash Island.

Fort Morgan, the Ridge and Peninsula.

The beach area.

East Gulf Shores, which is generally the neighborhood near the schools east of Ala. 59 and south of the canal.

West Gulf Shores, which is essentially west of Ala. 59 and south of the canal.

Meetings in those places have not yet been scheduled, the mayor said.

"We're trying to iron out facilities still," Craft said. "We'll try to do them in churches and other public gathering spots."

In addition to meeting with residents, a separate forum is slated for the city's business owners. That meeting may be held at City Hall, Craft said.

At the meetings, Craft said, "We'll tell them a little bit about what we want to know and then allow them to talk to us about their neighborhoods specifically — what's going on in their neighborhoods, what they like, what they don't like, what they need. This can be anything from sidewalks to streetlights to road improvements to something else specific to the neighborhood."

After that, attendees will be asked for their input on the entire city's five-year plan.

"As we sit up here and try to drive this bus, we've got to know where we're going," the mayor said. "And I'm sure we're going to have enough input from the community for how to chart our direction, to what we want to be."

All of the meetings are likely to have been held by the end of the year and city leaders will get to work on the five-year plan at the start of 2010, Craft said.