GULF SHORES — Gulf Shores continues to make plans to follow through with a revamping of the city beach access at Gulf Place.

On June 13 the city council approved obtaining a line of credit worth $13.5 million from BB&T bank with an eye on funding the redo of the beachfront area. It will also include improving a city-owned beachfront property east of Phoenix All Suites that is currently undeveloped.

At the same meeting the council OK’d paying for design work for the street-paving plan for 2016 which will include adding a sidewalk along two blocks of East 15^th Avenue.

With the line of credit, the city rolled in a line of about $4 million that was to be paid off in 2 ½ years, City Administrator Steve Griffin said. The new line will be for 10 years.

According to a city memo the money will be used for “approximately 350 parking spaces, two bathhouses, seawall, sidewalks, outdoor showers, lighting, benches, exercise areas, beach access points, signage, trash/recycling receptacles, shade structures, pavilions, a large green space and event space, and utilities improvements to provide for new sewer, water and electrical hookups.”

But, city Financial Director Cindy King said, the money isn’t earmarked for Gulf Place and asked to change the ordinance to make that clear.

“I will ask the attorney to include language to the effect that the funds may be used for any other project the city may want to use the money for,” King said.

Earlier this year the council hired TSW engineers for $155,500 and Volkert for $32,000 to develop schematic design plans, pricing estimates, surveys, geotechnical investigations and permitting for the Gulf Place Project.

This includes the redevelopment of the public beachfront area at the end of Alabama 59, and the streetscape of Beach Boulevard from East Third Street to West Fourth Street.

PAVING PROJECT

On the annual paving project the city is paying Hutchinson, Moore and Rauch $30,500 to design work on St. Andrews Drive and its side loops, Pinehurst Point, East 15th Avenue from Alabama 59 to East Third Street, Forestwood Drive and Briarwood Drive. The 15^th Avenue portion will include an eight-foot sidewalk from Alabama 59 to Alabama 180.

“St. Andrews, we have received numerous complaints on that road this past year about the condition it is in,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “There are several roads in the very first phase of the Craft Farms that have never been addressed. We’re trying to wrap those up.

“Pinehurst Point, we’re going to do some repairs and while we do the repairs there’s a lot of root intrusion on that particular street that is problematic for vehicles as well as our responders. We’re going to try to address that in this contract as well.”

As more streets are added to city maintenance due to subdivision development, Acreman said, the budget for road maintenance may have to be increased in upcoming years.

“As we accept more streets into our infrastructure we’ll have to include those now into our 10- to 15-year annual resurfacing for each individual street,” he said. “It is something we are in the process of reevaluating. We hope to have a dedicated list next year when we start to look at our budget.”

Acreman also said $500,000 is budgeted yearly for resurfacing but this year’s project list is expected to cost around $461,000.

“If they come in within budget we will have the ability to add additional streets to this list depending on what the budget will allow,” he said.

The $30,500 design cost to Hutchinson, Moore and Rauch is about 8 percent of the total project cost. Acreman said typically design costs are close to 12 percent on most projects.