ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – A new gas station is coming to Orange Beach and is expected to be up and running by spring.

The Walmart Neighborhood Market in the old Bruno’s location on Perdido Beach Boulevard and Murphy Oil received site plan approval for a building, gas lanes and tanks at Monday’s Planning Commission.

After Jan. 1, the company will submit building plans which have to go through the building department’s approval process. Officials believe the station will be operational by spring.

“I think it’s a service to the beach,” Mayor Tony Kennon said during a council work session Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s going to be anything but a positive to the beach and I know if they make architectural changes that we’ve asked them to make, it’s going to look good.”

According to City Planner Griffin Powell, the company’s original plan was to have a building of just more than 200 square feet at the site, much like the station at the Walmart SuperCenter’s station in Gulf Shores.

“When they submitted originally it was a 208-square-foot building and they had the vending machines on the outside,” Powell said. “They call it a snack alley.”

Officials and citizen members of the planning commission wanted the machines moved indoors, increasing the building’s size to 591 square foot, still under the city’s requirement. The company applied for and received a variance on that requirement.

“As of now they haven’t submitted (building) plans, but I anticipate they’ll be submitting plans in the next couple of weeks,” Powell said. “They have to get building permits.”