ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The City Council voted Thursday to create two entertainment districts with the city for 90-day trial periods, one a combination of San Roc Cay and Perdido Beach Resort.

Orange Beach is taking advantage of a law passed by the State Legislature to set up districts where customers can walk around with open containers of alcohol and visit multiple restaurants and bars.

Each district must have at least four businesses with liquor licenses within a half-mile square area. The law allows a city the size of Orange Beach two such districts.

Approved on July 5 were The Wharf on the Intracoastal Waterway and San Roc Cay on the north side of Alabama 182 just west of Perdido Pass. On Tuesday the Perdido Beach Resort, on the beach side of Alabama 182, was included in the San Roc Cay district.

In a last-minute request on July 5, San Roc Cay General Manager Patti Link asked the council to approve her business and the Perdido Beach Resort as one entertainment district.

Councilmembers, most of them hearing the proposal for the first time, balked at the move when first presented.

“I’m not comfortable voting on this if we’re going to include that because that’s not what I thought the intent was,” Councilmember Joni Blalock said.

Mayor Tony Kennon proposed the council study the issue for the next few days and have a specially called meeting on Tuesday to consider combining the districts. Tuesday’s meeting is a scheduled work session, or committee of the whole meeting, and the special session would immediately follow.

In that session the council unanimously OK’d adding Perdido Beach Resort.

“That gave us four or five days to look at it,” Kennon said.

Cochran, the city attorney, raised concerns that crossing a state highway with open containers would violate state law.

“If you wanted to have a district that was bisected by a public street, you would create a district, but then you would have to create a rule that the open container couldn’t be in the actual travel portion of the road,” Cochran said. “You can’t have alcohol in a public street. We don’t want to run afoul of that law. You can’t walk around with an open container.”

Kennon said that state laws still apply and that the establishment of entertainment districts are still subject to current state laws which prohibit open containers on state roads.

Perdido Beach Resort General Manager Tony Marzullo said the resort is pleased to be a part of the district and will consider signage on both sides of the highway informing patrons they can’t cross the road with open containers.

On the approvals of The Wharf and San Roc Cay and the addition of Perdido Beach Resort, councilmembers backed and voted for the plans, but expressed concerns. The city wants to get the districts set up now on the limited 90-day permit to give them a test run.

“I guess my concern with The Wharf is because there’s so many empty retailers right now is to keep it family friendly,” Councilwoman Pattisue Simpson said. “You don’t want a bar in every one of those facilities.”

Kennon said for the trial run, let the businesses run with the districts and any issues can be addressed when the 90-day term ends on Sept. 19.

“I think for the 90-day period I’m all for just letting them just police themselves,” Kennon said. “Our police department’s going to be on sight and we’ll just hash out at the end of the summer what we saw. And Chief (Billy) Wilkins will bring us issues and Chief Shane (Phillips) will bring us issues. And if there’s something that really takes off in the interim that’s not good we can intervene.

“In a worse-case scenario we can pull liquor licenses.”

Councilman Brett Holk said the businesses in the districts want to keep a family atmosphere.

“Right now you’ve got it on the 90 days and if they feel there’s a problem they can ask us to put restrictions,” Holk said. “If we see there’s a problem we can ask for restrictions. I think it works out great that way where we see how they do it.”

A Bourbon Street-type district is not what the city or businesses want, Kennon said.

“You take the investment Baumhower’s has put into those two restaurants and some of the investments in some really nice places, I think they will be the ones screaming at the top of their lungs if it turns into a Bourbon Street,” Kennon said. “It would be detrimental to their business.”