Orange Beach Planning Commission Takes Up Margaritaville Villas, Sign and PUD Zoning Rewrites

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The Orange Beach Planning Commission was scheduled Monday, Oct. 12, to take up final subdivision approval for the Villas of Margaritaville at Wharf Landing, a gated enclave of 12 single-family lots beside the Margaritaville resort under construction at The Wharf, along with three rewrites of the city’s zoning ordinance covering signs, planned unit developments and district rules.

The agenda also included two small lot-line adjustments and a long-pending request for a gated garage condominium on Roscoe Road. Commissioners were set to hold a work session at 2:30 p.m. and their regular meeting at 4 p.m. in the City Council Chamber at Orange Beach City Hall, 4099 Orange Beach Blvd. The meeting fell two days after Hurricane Isaias swept the Alabama coast, and results were not immediately available Tuesday.

The development reviews follow a temporary moratorium the City of Orange Beach previously enacted on multi-family residential projects and certain subdivisions, a pause meant to give officials time to evaluate infrastructure and update the city’s land-use plans.

Villas of Margaritaville at Wharf Landing

The headline item, Case No. 1001-SD-26, was a request by Sawgrass Consulting LLC on behalf of The Wharf Landing LLC for Final Major Subdivision approval. The project, now called The Villas of Margaritaville at Wharf Landing, was previously known as The Wharf Landing Villas PUD Subdivision.

The plan would divide Lot 3 of The Wharf Landing Phase 2 Subdivision into a gated single-family community with 12 lots, following the master plan already approved for The Wharf Landing Villas planned unit development. According to the agenda, the property sits east of the waterfront district of the Margaritaville resort.

Final plat approval is generally the last step in the city’s subdivision process. Once a final plat is approved and recorded, the lot lines become official, which allows individual lots to be sold and building permits to be sought. Earlier steps typically settle the layout of streets, utilities, drainage and access.

Part of a larger resort

The villas are one piece of Margaritaville Resort Orange Beach at The Wharf, which is being built on more than 80 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway. As South Alabama News reported earlier this month, the resort is a partnership between Margaritaville Holdings and Art Favre, owner of The Wharf. Construction began with a groundbreaking in May 2025, and the resort is scheduled to open in late 2027. The overall plan also calls for 149 condominium units and 150 single-family cottages, along with a marina, pools, a lazy river and Margaritaville-branded restaurants and bars.

The construction site drew attention in early October when heavy rain sent fine sediment into nearby Portage Creek. The developer said its stormwater system was overwhelmed by more than 7½ inches of rain in 24 hours rather than breached, and that crews added controls during the storm. Read that coverage here.

Three zoning ordinance rewrites

The Orange Beach Community Development Department asked the commission to recommend that the City Council approve text amendments to three articles of the Orange Beach Zoning Ordinance. Each was listed for discussion at the work session and for a public hearing at the regular meeting.

• Case No. 1002-ZT-26, Article 15 – Sign Regulations: Amendments to the city’s sign rules.
• Case No. 1003-ZT-26, Article 7 – Planned Unit Development: Amendments to the rules governing planned unit developments.
• Case No. 1004-ZT-26, Article 4 – District Requirements: Amendments covering permitted uses, buffering requirements and other regulations in the city’s zoning districts.

The agenda did not spell out the specific wording changes. Because these are amendments to the zoning ordinance itself, the Planning Commission’s role is advisory: it holds a hearing and sends a recommendation, and the City Council makes the final decision after its own public hearing.

Why sign rules get rewritten

Cities nationwide have been revisiting their sign codes since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. The court held that sign rules that treat signs differently based on what they say are content-based and must meet the strictest level of constitutional review. Many local governments have since rewritten their codes to regulate signs by size, placement, lighting and duration instead of by message. Nearby Gulf Shores recently took up a similar amendment to remove content-based sign language from its zoning code.

What a PUD is

A planned unit development, or PUD, lets a developer propose a master plan for a larger tract, often with flexibility on lot sizes, setbacks, density and open space that standard zoning would not allow, in exchange for the city’s review and approval of the overall design. The Wharf Landing Villas project on the same agenda is itself a PUD, and changes to Article 7 would shape how future PUD requests are reviewed in Orange Beach.

District requirements and buffers

Article 4 sets out what can be built in each zoning district and the standards that go with it. Buffering requirements typically govern the landscaped strips, walls or fences required between different types of uses, such as between businesses and homes. Changes to permitted uses can affect what property owners are allowed to do with their land, which is one reason amendments of this kind go through public hearings.

Two lot-line adjustments

The commission also had two requests from Lucido Engineering & Surveying LLC for Preliminary and Final Minor Subdivision approval. Minor subdivisions like these usually move a shared boundary between existing lots rather than create new building sites.

• Case No. 1005-SD-26, Cowan Plat #1: On behalf of Richard T. Cowan, a request to move the lot line between Lots 1 and 2 of The Walker Estate Subdivision at 4852 Caswell Lane, in the Single-Family Residential (RS-1) district.
• Case No. 1006-SD-26, Everhart Division: On behalf of Marissa Everhart, a request to move the lot line between Lots 2 and 3 of the Everhart Division at 4787 and 4799 Callaway Drive, in the Marine Resort (MR) district.

Toy Chest Garage Condominium

The final development item, Case No. 0802-CU-26, was a request by Robert Norris for a recommendation to the City Council for Conditional Use approval of the Toy Chest Garage Condominium. The project would be a climate-controlled, gated garage condominium facility with six storage buildings and a clubhouse at 5616 Roscoe Road in the General Business (GB) district.

The request was deferred from the commission’s Sept. 14 meeting and was listed under items submitted but not meeting the second deadline, which generally means it was on the agenda without all materials having been filed on the city’s schedule.

Garage condominiums are buildings divided into individually owned storage units, often used for boats, recreational vehicles, collector cars and other equipment. They have become common in coastal communities where homeowners and condo owners have limited space to store boats and vehicles. A conditional use is a use allowed in a zoning district only after case-by-case review, and in Orange Beach the final decision on this request rests with the City Council.

Other business

The regular meeting agenda also called for approval of the minutes from the Sept. 14 regular meeting. No site plan reviews were listed, and the agenda closed with other business and public comments.

How the process works

Alabama law gives municipal planning commissions authority over subdivision of land within a city’s jurisdiction, so the commission’s votes on subdivision plats such as the Margaritaville villas and the two lot-line adjustments are its own decisions. On zoning ordinance changes and conditional uses, the commission makes recommendations that the City Council then considers.

For the three zoning text amendments and the Toy Chest request, that means at least one more round of review at the council level, typically including a public hearing with advance notice, before any change takes effect.

Growth questions across Baldwin County

The Orange Beach agenda comes as several Baldwin County governments have hit pause on parts of their development pipelines. Fairhope extended a residential building moratorium in September, Daphne paused new apartment applications while it rewrites its residential zoning rules, and the Baldwin County Commission approved a 180-day moratorium on rezoning requests, data centers and renewable energy projects in zoned areas earlier this month.

Orange Beach, with its year-round population of a little more than 8,000 swelling by tens of thousands of visitors during peak season, faces its own pressures on roads, water, sewer and drainage. Zoning rule updates and subdivision decisions are among the main tools the city has to manage that growth.

How residents can get involved

• Read the agendas: Planning Commission and City Council agendas and supporting documents are posted on the City of Orange Beach website before each meeting.
• Attend and speak: Planning Commission meetings are open to the public, and the agenda includes time for public comments and public hearings on zoning changes.
• Watch for council hearings: The zoning text amendments and the Toy Chest request go to the City Council, where residents will have another chance to weigh in.
• Ask staff: The Community Development Department can answer questions about specific cases, zoning districts and the review process.

At a glance

• Meeting: Orange Beach Planning Commission, Monday, Oct. 12, work session at 2:30 p.m., regular meeting at 4 p.m., City Hall, 4099 Orange Beach Blvd.
• Major subdivision: The Villas of Margaritaville at Wharf Landing, 12 gated single-family lots (Case No. 1001-SD-26).
• Zoning text amendments: Sign regulations (Article 15), planned unit developments (Article 7) and district requirements (Article 4).
• Minor subdivisions: Lot-line changes at 4852 Caswell Lane and at 4787 and 4799 Callaway Drive.
• Conditional use: Toy Chest Garage Condominium, 5616 Roscoe Road, deferred from Sept. 14.