FAIRHOPE, Ala. — On Monday, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the location and general plans for a bus facility to serve as a hub for routes leaving and returning to the Fairhope area.

The bus facility will be located on Fairhope Avenue behind the Eastern Shore Shopping Center on Greeno Road and will include eight bus and 35 regular parking spaces, as well as two aboveground fuel tanks and a detention pond, according to a preliminary site plan.

Representatives of the Baldwin Area Transportation System (BRATS) and county highway department said the facility will include an enclosed building with an office and a waiting area near the Fairhope Avenue side of the facility. The entire facility, including bus lanes, parking spaces, fuel tanks and detention pond, will stretch the length of the shopping center on its eastern side, according to city records.

“It will have restrooms and a seating area that is heated and cooled,” said Taylor Rider, BRATS transportation director, of the building to be constructed.

The facility is a joint project of the county and city, with the county handling construction of the project, according to city records.

The city will pay approximately $2,000 a month in a 35-year lease with the owner of the shopping-center property, said Mayor Tim Kant, a commission member.

Kant and Jennifer Fidler, public works director, raised concerns about preservation of existing trees, green space and the general appearance of a facility, part of which will face the back of a strip shopping mall.

“We can do some tree buffers,” said Lawrence Wilson, an engineer with the Baldwin County Highway Department, who also said his department would work with the city to accommodate the other concerns raised, which might include a more narrow bus lane to increase green space and tree plantings.

Wilson said when the BRATS facility in Fairhope begins operation, about six to eight buses would leave from there in the morning, two to four leave or arrive at midday, and six to eight return in the afternoon. As the bus routes increase over time, a BRATS bus might pass through the facility about every 30 minutes, he said.

A representative from the Kensington Homeowners Association raised questions about the traffic flow around the facility and possible noise issues.

“We’ll see if we can’t get these issues addressed,” said Wilson, who stated the traffic will enter one-way to the south from Fairhope Avenue and exit at a light on Morphy Avenue.

No time frame was stated for the start of construction of the facility.

In other business, the commission:

• Approved a site plan for construction of Iberia Bank, which will be located in front of the Publix Super Market at the southeast corner of Greeno and Parker roads.

The commission accepted the planning staff’s recommendation to approve the .92-acre project located within the Fly Creek Planned Unit Development that included several conditions. One of which was to replace a statement on the landscape plans.

The planning department said a statement in those plans, that the existing “buffer (will) be repaired if damaged during construction with matching species and size,” was incorrect.

The commission accepted the department’s recommendation to replace that language with the following sentences: “The existing naturalized landscape buffers on the proposed site shall not be disturbed by any construction. No construction activities are allowed in the buffer. Only plant installation is allowed. Tree protection barrier shall be erected prior to any construction and maintained until construction is complete.”

The commission also accepted the staff recommendation that “a tree inventory for the naturalized buffer is required prior to the issuance of land disturbance and/or building permit.”

• Approved the request of Larry Smith of S.E. Civil LLC for preliminary and final plat approval for a five-lot subdivision called Park Place to be located on the west side of Section Street just north of Morphy Avenue. The property is owned by Carswell M. and Virginia H. Walcott.

• Convened in executive session to discuss possible litigation issues. The commission took no action after it reconvened in open section. The written statement presented by the commission’s attorney, Chris Gill, which is required to convene an executive session, did note that the commission should not “deliberate” while in a closed-door session.

Gill’s letter stated if the commission did begin deliberations, it should either reconvene in open session or cease deliberations, which the Alabama Open Meetings Acts prohibits in executive sessions.