FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The city issued a long-awaited but controversial building permit Friday, Nov. 16, for construction of the Hampton Inn on Section Street.

“It will be good for Fairhope,” said Charlie Bassett, president of Fairhope Hospitality Group LLC, owner and developer of the property. “I think the hotel will bring a lot of people to the downtown area.”

Bassett watched Monday as a bulldozer prepared the site for construction of the three-story, 89-room hotel delayed recently by issues concerning a live oak on the property that is between 54 and 59 inches in diameter, according to reports prepared by two tree experts.

The tree at the center of the controversy is more than twice the required 24 inches in diameter to qualify as a “significant tree,” which restricts the cutting and pruning of such trees anywhere within city limits without prior approval, except on certain residential properties.

The city’s tree ordinance requires the city horticulturist to approve site development plans for projects where significant trees are located, as well as approval by the director of planning. But approximately two years ago, the Hampton Inn site development plan received approval without the city horticulturist’s participation or signature.

That lack of approval surfaced in the past two months, resulting in a round of meetings between the city, developer, adjacent property owners, concerned citizens and the city’s Tree Committee.

The city and developer signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” Wednesday, Nov. 14, addressing eight points of agreement regarding how the tree is to be cut, pruned and protected.

“FHG will allow the city horticulturist and certified arborist to oversee the cutting,” one provision in the document states. “The city horticulturist and certified arborist will not be able to veto construction. Said tree trimming shall be under the direction of certified arborist Cleve Formwalt.”

The MOU was signed by Fairhope City Horticulturist Jennifer Fidler (also the city’s public works director) and Bassett, FHG president.

Two provisions in the document note the City Council’s role in the process: “because the City Council has asked the horticulturist to move the project forward so as to not ‘kill’ the project,” the developer was not required to make certain modifications to the building originally requested by Fidler.

Not everyone is happy about the permit being issued.

“The city has publicly and repeatedly stated how important it is to enforce the tree ordinance,” attorney A.J. Cooper wrote in a Nov. 14 letter to Mayor Tim Kant. He represents Susan Davis, who owns the adjacent Fairhope Newsstand property on Section Street.

“In the instant case, however, the city is unwilling to do what is necessary to enforce the tree ordinance and save the tree,” Cooper wrote. “The developer had an obligation to comply with City of Fairhope regulations and the City of Fairhope had an obligation to enforce the regulations and the tree ordinance … . Not only is the site plan deficient, the requirement of a full landscape plan prepared by a licensed landscape architect or a qualified landscape designer does not appear to have been complied with.”

The letter sought a delay in the permit to reach an agreement with the developer and city regarding agreements on who would bear the cost if the tree dies and damages result at the adjacent business.

One of the final items negotiated on the MOU and dated Nov. 13 states that “as the west side of the tree is trimmed, the east side (that is closest to the adjacent businesses) will also be trimmed, if all concerned parties have executed the Release and Indemnification Agreement prepared by FHG, which Agreement will be a separate document and not a part of this Memorandum of Understanding.”

Cooper said Tuesday that he was “shocked that the city would issue the permit without responding to his letter.”

“We tried to resolve this (issue) amicably,” he said, adding that he will contact his clients and take action accordingly.

In addition to the hotel construction, an adjacent three-level parking deck will also be built by FHG in the area where public parking is now located (between Section and Church streets and behind businesses on Fairhope Avenue). The parking deck will be owned and managed by the city with 89 spaces reserved for the hotel, as set forth in a Nov. 15 Memorandum of Agreement between the developer and the city’s Parking Authority.

Bassett said both the hotel and parking deck would be finished by November 2008. Construction of the hotel will start immediately, but construction of the parking deck will start after the Christmas season is over, so that available downtown parking will not be disturbed during the busiest shopping time of the year, he said.

Bassett said Monday that he did not yet know when they would start cutting the live oak.

Tom Ellis, the chairman of the city’s Tree Committee, presided over several meetings after the status of the live oak became an issue, leading to the current resolution.

“The main thing we learned is that the city needs to make sure that it complies with all the procedures in its ordinances and that all provisions in the tree ordinance be followed,” Ellis said. “And that’s what did not happen this time.”