FAIRHOPE, Alabama—Billy and Patti Dorgan took a hotly disputed zoning issue to state circuit court last Friday by appealing a Baldwin County zoning board’s ruling decided earlier in the week.

That March 12 zoning board decision, which they appealed on March 16, upheld Baldwin County Planning Director Vince Jackson’s November order. That planning department order sought to shut down their wedding and event-hosting enterprise in Point Clear called Dorgan’s Inn for allegedly operating a business in a residentially zoned neighborhood.

After the zoning board gave its ruling on March 12, a large majority of the packed meeting room in Robertsdale of more than 75 people erupted in applause. But that jubilant mood among some residents was cut short when the Dorgans hosted another event at their bay-front property on March 17.

And those residents’ victory before the zoning board might be short-lived in terms of enforcement of Jackson’s order, no matter what the outcome of the lawsuit is, if it’s determined that enforcement is stayed before the case goes to trial, which could take years.  

“It’s unclear whether there was a stay of enforcement when the appeal was taken to circuit court, and that’s what is currently being evaluated,” Jackson said this week. He said the county attorney had been consulted, and a statement about the status of the “stay issue” would probably be made by his department by the end of this week.

When the Dorgans appealed Jackson’s November order to the zoning board in December, enforcement of the order was stayed by a county zoning rule. It’s whether the filing of the lawsuit last week resulted in another stay of enforcement that is now the issue, Jackson said.

Since 2009, the Dorgans have hosted weddings and other events at the site—including overnight lodging for “Sweet Home Alabama” cast members, with the property also serving as a main film location for some episodes of that hit CMT-dating show last year.

The events at Dorgan’s Inn increased in size and frequency during the past two years, according to resident Albert Key and the Point Clear Property Owners’ Association, prompting them to file zoning complaints with the county in September, according to records. It was those complaints they initiated that resulted in Jackson’s order in November, which determined that the Dorgans were violating zoning law by running a business in a residential neighborhood.

After the March 12 hearing, Key said that if the Dorgans have any more events at the Point Clear location, that local residents will ask Jackson to enforce his order.

“If they appeal (to circuit court), we will take the position that that doesn’t stay his order,” Key said last week. “I don’t know whether we will be successful (with that).”

During that March 12 appeal before the zoning board, Chad Marchand, the Dorgans’ attorney, said his clients were not running a business because they only lease their property and do not sell goods or provide services. 

Marchand also contended that Jackson’s November determination was arbitrary and capricious for, among other reasons, not providing guidelines for when hosting of weddings and events on private property rose to the level of operating a commercial enterprise.

“The longstanding practice and custom of the Baldwin County Planning and Zoning Department is to stay any enforcement of its and the (zoning board)’s decisions while an appeal is pending before the circuit court,” Marchand said. “For the department to treat the Dorgans’ case any differently will be further evidence of the department’s discriminatory and arbitrary enforcement of the county’s ordinances against Patti and Billy Dorgan.”