Foley strategic plan public meetings slated Feb. 7-8

Foley strategic plan public meetings slated Feb. 7-8
City’s population has almost tripled since 2010 census

Foley continues to work on infrastructure and other projects to deal with the challenges of one of the area’s fastest growing cities. Foley has grown from a population of 8,727 to about 25,000 since the 2020 census.
“That growth is something that is on all of our minds on how we address it,” Mayor Ralph Hellmich said, “We’ve upped a lot of standards for our infrastructure. We have better developments now coming in, but some of these things that people see that are being built right now were approved four or five years ago. It takes a lot of development time for some of these things to take place.”
The mayor said the city is also working to develop a strategic plan to guide growth in upcoming years. Residents can take a survey on the city website – cityoffoley.org – to share their thoughts and opinions about plans for Foley in the future. The city will also hold three public meetings in February to discuss the plan.
• The first meeting will be at the Graham Creek Nature Preserve Interpretive Center at 23030 Wolf Bay Drive on Wednesday, Feb. 7 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• The second meeting is scheduled at the Foley Senior Center at 304 East Rose Ave. on Thursday, Feb. 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• The third meeting will also be on Feb. 8 at the Foley United Methodist Church at 915 North Pine Street from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That meeting will be at the church’s center The Well.
Foley has budgeted $72.8 million for capital projects in the 2024 fiscal year. Improving traffic flow by extending city streets to provide alternate routes for north-south traffic is one priority. One project recently approved by the state is the improvement at the intersection of Baldwin County 12 and Alabama 59. The city is also waiting on state approval to add a safety shoulder and repave the entire Foley Beach Express route through Foley. The city has also increased its sidewalk construction program to add more pedestrian walkways around the city and plans are in the works for an indoor aquatics center to replace the swimming pool at Max Griffin Park.