ORANGE BEACH, AL — There could be a 26-story, 800,000-square-foot new condo tower going up on the beach next to the Hampton Inn in Orange Beach.

But there’s not.

A building, Phoenix Orange Beach, is going up there soon. But in the new era of managing growth more closely and not relaxing regulations for planned unit developments, the city and Brett-Robinson have partnered to decide on what might be best for both when it comes to new buildings.

“Brett-Robinson came to our planning department in the spring and said it had been 10 years since they built a building,” Mayor Tony Kennon said. “‘We don’t know exactly what the city wants, we’re asking your guidance as to where it should go and how it should be built.’”

“Our planning department sat down with them and directed them to that particular piece of property because that is the high-density property, it’s zoned that, and there will be something built there high-density because we can’t stop it.”

On Jan. 5 the city council approved the final product 4-0 with Kennon and Councilman Jeff Silvers abstaining.

John Brett, a broker with Brett-Robinson Sales and Development, said input from the city was the first thing the company sought when it decided to build another condo in Orange Beach. It is the 21st in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach developed by Brett-Robinson.

“If we do this, where you guys like to see us?” is how the conversation started, Brett said. “Where would be a good location, what would be better for Orange Beach? Just asking for advice. It was very helpful to get that information from them. The conversation probably started in late 2014.”

The result of that conversation was not 800,000 square feet of more condo floor space, but about half that amount. It won’t soar to 26 stories as allowed by law.

But it will offer a paved beach access for city emergency and cleanup crews and add some other suggestions from city staffers for a more positive look and feel to the new building.

“With the new effort in the city of keeping the beaches cleaner, of people picking up after themselves after the past summers of people leaving beach chairs and things out there, they need the ability to get out there and clean that stuff up,” Brett said. “They also want to try to minimize traffic up and down the beach. Some of these beach vendors have to drive a quarter mile up and down from Cotton Bayou to get down to the condos.

After taking all these things into consideration we came up with a design with their input. We came up with a design that would allow us to those things into the development and design of the building.”

The parking deck will sit about 100 feet off the road, four times further back than the required setback. And the main building will be 200 from the road.

“By right under the zoning they can build a building 26 stories, 30 feet from the setback on beach road,” Kennon said. “That would be a monstrosity and that’s the last thing we want.”

There is a planned unit development to avoid a small zoning requirement, the incremental setback rule. Starting at a certain height zoning calls for the building to be 10 feet narrower with each additional story.

That was waived for this particular building, Kennon said, but the resulting design concessions and access far outweigh requiring the incremental setback.

“They’ve now narrowed the base of the building which gave the city emergency access to the beach at the part of the beach where we have none to get our paramedics and emergency medical staff down there,” Kennon said. “Staff to clean the beach, deal with the beach companies so we don’t have vehicles running up and down the beach.

“They’re also going to eliminate a storm water problem we have there on that property and incorporate that fix into their storm water drainage management. They’re going to do certain architectural features to the building that we suggested and we won’t just have a glaring parking deck sitting right on the road.”

The building, which Brett estimates will take 30 months to complete, will have 112 three-bedroom units. Brett-Robinson paid $5.5 million for the land which was previously slated for a development called Junonia.

There will be 38 four-bedroom units at $725,000, 72 three-bedroom units at $595,000 and two penthouses.

Brett-Robinson is also building an 80-unit, 22-story condo called Phoenix Gulf Shores and construction began there in December of 2014. It is on a lot on West Beach where Emerald Shores was located before it was destroyed in Ivan.