Gulf Shores Residents Help Shape City’s 20-Year Vision at First ‘Playbook’ Planning Workshop

Gulf Shores residents got their first chance to help shape the city’s vision for the next two decades on July 14, when the city held its first public workshop for a new comprehensive plan at the new high school.

The open house marked the first public step in a 16-month effort to build a new “playbook” for the city’s future, one that will guide decisions on transportation, housing and infrastructure through 2045.

“We’ve got to look into the future and make sure what we’re doing is what we need to remain who we are,” Mayor Robert Craft said.

Consultants from Interboro Partners, a planning firm chosen unanimously from among 12 national proposals, transformed the high school’s new theater into a workshop featuring seven interactive stations for attendees to explore.

Residents began by locating their own neighborhoods on maps and completing demographic surveys designed to ensure the plan reflects a representative cross-section of the community. At other stations, they reviewed existing data on homeownership, zoning and underdeveloped land while sharing their initial impressions.

To push beyond broad, big-picture ideas, residents also completed a visioning exercise connecting community values to specific transportation and housing priorities. In a “Seeing Gulf Shores” exercise, participants captioned 100 photographs taken around the city, giving planners insight into how different parts of Gulf Shores are perceived by the people who live there.

Another station let residents “play city planner” by placing colored tabs representing specific priorities — such as outdoor dining, healthier wetlands, beach access and affordable housing — onto a large-scale map of the city.

“A comprehensive plan only succeeds if it reflects the people who know the community best… That is you,” said Daniel Dioka, a principal with Interboro Partners.

The final station invited attendees to suggest a slogan for the project, with organizers hoping for something more engaging than “the Gulf Shores Plan.” Over the next year, the planning team will continue gathering resident input at farmers markets and pop-up events around the city.

Lee Jones, the city’s planning director, said the goal is for the final plan to reflect the people who call Gulf Shores home.

“This is your plan,” Jones said. “Hopefully you will see your fingerprints all over it at the end of the day.”

How a comprehensive plan works

Under Alabama law, a city’s planning commission is charged with making and adopting a master plan for the municipality’s physical development. The plan serves as a guide for later decisions on zoning, subdivisions, roads and other public improvements, rather than as a binding ordinance on its own.