Pirates Voyage Dinner Theater pushed to next O.B. Planning Board agenda
Pirates Voyage Dinner Theater pushed to next O.B. Planning Board agenda
Citizens attend recent town hall meeting to voice overwhelming opposition to plan
By Fran Thompson
The top item on the May 11 Orange Beach Planning Commission agenda, a Planned Unit Development permit request for the Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show across from Orange Beach City Hall on Orange Beach Blvd., was withdrawn.
The developer’s purchase of the 24 acre property for $14 million is contingent on the City Council approving the PUD, as it is currently zoned for a mobile home park. Council was scheduled to vote on the project at its June 2 meeting.
The PUD must go before the Planning Commission on June 8 or the project’s management firm, World Choice Investments of Pigeon Forge, will have to re-start the application process. The limit for consecutive PUD deferrals is three.
An overwhelming majority of those packed into the city’s performing arts center for a recent town hall meeting were there to protest the location of Pirate’s Voyage, a Dolly Parton branded theater that already has locations in Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach and Panama City Beach.
The planned a 59K square ft. dinner theater development still would have had to go through a traffic impact study by the Alabama Department of Transportation and an environmental impact assessment before final approval.
Chances are the project was never going to even receive initial approval by City Council, as three members (Robert Stuart, Ginger Harrelson, and Jack Robertson) said they had issues with the location, but not the concept of the theater being in Orange Beach at the recent O.B. town hall.
Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said at the town hall that he has not taken a position on the PUD request.
But that does not by any means make Orange Beach resident Dean Remington’s post town hall facebook post any less important, relevant and revealing.
“I truly believe the town hall and the voices of our community made a difference,’’ Remington posted following the permit withdrawal announcement. “I helped start a petition that gathered more than 1,300 signatures in just a matter of days. That kind of response shows just how powerful our voices can be when people come together for a common cause.
“No matter where you stood on this issue, this was a reminder that community involvement matters and that the people should always have a voice in the future of their city,’’ Remington added.
Thanks to its beautiful beaches, Orange Beach’s condo row has become Alabama’s top tourist destination. Those tourist dollars have allowed the city to hold a bonding capacity of up to $300 million. The city has enough in cash & reserves to pay off its $125 million of debt.
“It’s not taking $14 million and buying a yacht and watching it depreciate,” Robertson said during the town hall. “It’s taking $14 million from savings and putting it here and having the property go up in value. If we get into a financial crisis, then we can sell the thing.”
Mayor Kennon said at the town hall that council would weigh the option of buying the land outright while noting that the city has purchased $60 million in property for public benefits that included fixing drainage problems in surrounding neighborhoods.
The theater’s predictable traffic patterns (three shows a day in summer) would make dealing with the increased traffic it would bring more manageable.
A sold-out show would bring roughly 285 cars to the site for each show and those cars could be cleared from the property in five to ten minutes.
Police could direct traffic when needed, similar to what is being done for local churches after Sunday services, Mayor Kennon said. Highway 161 is operating at about 70 percent of its capacity, according to ALDOT.
A right-in, right-out only designation would force all traffic leaving the theater to go north on Hwy. 161 and then east on Canal Rd. to the roundabout at Orange Beach Waterfront Park.
Issues with drainage into Terry Cove and the preservation of the site’s oak trees and nature habitat were also brought up by citizens against the project during the town hall.
Even though Orange Beach has had a tourist driven economy since way before the majority of its residents moved to the city, the general consensus among those at the town hall was that the theater in that location would “is not part of the character of Orange Beach.”
According to recent statistics released by Zillow, Orange Beach has the second most expensive real estate market in the state.