DAPHNE, Ala. — Academy Sports and Outdoors may move into a vacant site in the Jubilee Square Shopping Center once the Planning Commission decides whether to expand an existing overlay district or develop a new overlay. An overlay is a specific set of guidelines used to develop an area; the city currently has four overlay districts: the Eastern Shore Centre; Olde Towne Daphne; the Village; and a residential high-rise development.

Overlay district reform is necessary because developers for the Academy site have specific signage requests that do not meet the current overlay district guidelines.

Developers have requested a 75-foot multi-tenant sign to advertise the location and other retailers in the square.

“That benefits the entire square and the businesses located in it,” developer Joe Bulloch said, adding that the sign has been designed to match existing signage along U.S. Highway 90.

“We need to be on an equal footing with them to be competitive,” Bulloch said, referring to a competitor, Bass Pro Shops, located across Interstate 10 in Spanish Fort.

“We are willing to work with any minutiae or details with your staff,” Bulloch said to planning commissioners. “We’re on a pretty tight critical path,” he said, adding that they plan to open in fall 2010.

Bulloch said the group’s legal counsel will review guidelines contained in the Eastern Shore Centre overlay and will promptly make recommendations to the commission.

“The overlays are not designed to manipulate our land-use ordinance,” Commissioner Cathy Barnette said, “for one issue — in this case — signage. The issue is whether or not we want to extend the overlay district to Jubilee Square.”

Commissioner Victoria Phelps said Jubilee Square is “a different entity” than the developments along Alabama Highway 181 included in the Spanish Fort’s Eastern Shore Centre overlay and its features should be factored when considering combining or extending overlays.

“I think we’ve done the work,” Commissioner Larry Chason said, suggesting that developers use the Eastern Shore Centre overlay as a model.

“I think we have the basic framework to create one,” Phelps said, favoring developing a fifth district.

City attorney Jay Ross said the city could face a potential hazard by allowing signage features on one side of the interstate — in Jubilee Square — and not in Spanish Fort Town Center on the opposite side of Interstate 10.

Mayor Fred Small recommended that staffers review district redevelopment and make a recommendation to the commission next month.

In doing so, Barnette said a “trade-off’ is in order to give the public tangible quality-of-life benefits, such as constructing sidewalks and walking trails along U.S. Highway 90.

In other business, commissioners:

Commissioner Frank Martin cast the lone dissenting vote.

“We’ve tried to sell this property for five years and haven’t been able to sell because it’s surrounded by B-2,” owner Frank Trione said.

Commission secretary Don Terry asked what the difference was between this presentation and one given two months ago when the request was denied.

“Today, it’s B-1, instead of B-2,” Trione said. ‘It was B-2 last time. The use of this will be an office at first and then, down the road, may be a restaurant.”

Martin said there’s a point at which the city needs to regulate business development in Olde Towne Daphne.

Barnette agreed with Martin’s suggestion.

“It is extremely important where we draw the line,” she said. “There needs to be assurances for the neighborhood that there will not be further encroachment.”

Small recommended the city revisit the Olde Towne Daphne overlay district by holding a series of public hearings.

During public participation, resident David Wetzel spoke against the rezoning, citing impact to the area’s natural environment from continued development.

“A lot of times, as small communities grow — like this one has — things change,” he said, adding that he has no personal agenda against Trione selling his property.

Wetzel suggested the commission add more greenspace and plan a park at the site.

“When are we going to be creative to start protecting our world?” he asked.