FAIRHOPE, Alabama—A week before next month’s second-season premiere of the reality television show “Sweet Home Alabama,” the owners of the Point Clear lodging where filming is under way may face a county zoning board again, which could be crowded once more with complaining neighbors.

“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between this and a hotel,” former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Champ Lyons said during an August hearing before the Baldwin County Zoning Board of Adjustment.

After listening to nearly a dozen such residents at that Aug. 8 hearing, the board split 2-2, which denied the request of William and Patricia Dorgan to obtain bed-and-breakfast status for two houses at their residentially zoned Point Clear property.

By a procedure added to the board’s bylaws in May, which allows a rehearing of decisions in less than a year’s time, the Dorgans applied for one to challenge their denial, which was scheduled Sept. 12.

But a few hours before the meeting, and less than an hour after The Fairhope Courier confirmed with zoning staff the time and place, the newspaper was told by the same staff that it had been cancelled. Additional inquiries revealed the application had been postponed and not withdrawn.

“It is tentatively scheduled for the October 10 meeting unless we hear differently from the applicant,” Planning Director Vince Jackson said Wednesday. “No reason was given for the postponement.”

Both the applications for rehearing and postponement were made verbally, which is permitted by county rules, Jackson said, despite some language to the contrary. The planning department has recommended that the board grant the application for a rehearing and to approve the Dorgans’ request for a special exception to the zoning laws.

If the board grants the application at its October meeting, the rehearing of the board’s August denial itself will likely be scheduled for November.

Sweet home for a TV show

Called Dorgan’s Inn, that scenic Point Clear setting of cottages and bay front houses with large porches and manicured lawns and gardens became well known this summer to fans of the Country Music Television hit show as the temporary residence of Tuscaloosa student Devin Grissom.

It was there on its elegantly landscaped grounds that she narrowed down a passel of “city and country boys” to one winner for her heart. She often did so dramatically, sitting pensively on the tailgate of an antique truck parked in the driveway, giving one guy the bad news, while other suitors waited nervously back on the porch.

With the Sept. 1 finale averaging 717,000 total viewers, the show now ranks as the highest rated series for CMT in 2011, according to the cable network.

So it’s little surprise that the film crew has already returned to Point Clear. It did so about three weeks ago, now with Dorgan’s Inn as home base of operations, according to the Mobile Film Office.

Though Tribble Reese, a former Clemson quarterback and recent Birmingham bartender, may have finished second in the first season, he came out on top in the ratings apparently, and is now the lead of the second, presumably selecting, even as we speak, his favorite beauty from among a harem of 20 city and country gals.

The new season is scheduled to start Oct. 20, and CMT’s Facebook page includes a “sneak peek” video that features some Point Clear and South Alabama vistas.

These days, the 75-plus-car-sized parking lot owned by the Dorgans across Scenic Highway 98 from their bay front Shangri-La is filled with a changing array of cars and trucks, with frequent appearances of young ladies being escorted back and forth to the main grounds in golf carts. They are all staying at Dorgan’s Inn, as may Reese himself, according to the film office, with shooting to continue until Sept. 26.

But it’s not the recent traffic from the popular television show, or the occasional sightings of bikini-clad “bachelorettes” lolling about on the Dorgans ’dock, which have the neighbors upset, according to some.

It’s what has happened there since the Dorgan’s Inn sign was first hung in front of the double-gated property more than two years ago.

Troubled business in paradise

A few neighbors expressed some concern when the Dorgans first began clearing property on the east side of Scenic Highway 98 for a road and parking lot through a delineated wetlands area. That initial work on the land was stopped in 2009 after The Courier’s reporting, but construction resumed after the Dorgans received an “after-the-fact” permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Since then, local criticism of the Dorgans’ expanding enterprise has increased, as their business took off and the crowds came to normally quiet Point Clear. The couple’s recent petition for a special exception to the zoning laws has galvanized a growing opposition.

Dorgan’s Bay House Inn LLC has a business license for “vacation rental” from the city of Fairhope, and state records show the company was formed in February 2010, listing “own real estate” as the business purpose. Two related companies were formed at the same time, Dorgan’s Cottage Inn LLC and Dorgan’s Property Management LLC, with the same business description.

“Whether you’re planning a bridesmaids’ luncheon for 20 or a family reunion for 200,” the charming Point Clear community location of Dorgan’s Inn is touted as the place to hold your next event, according to the company’s website.

While the August zoning board hearing focused specifically on the bed-and-breakfast issue, many neighbors spoke about the growing size and changing nature of Dorgan’s Inn.

“Commercial activity on this property has expanded dramatically in recent years with hundreds of people invading the property on any given weekend for events,” resident Sam Dyson stated in a letter to the board. “This type of activity is not consistent with the residential nature of the surrounding properties, and I surely do not want to see this type of activity increased by the operation of a bed-and-breakfast.”

The legal questions before the zoning board are highly technical and hotly disputed, but lining up against Dorgan’s Inn are several influential local residents and lawyers, including current presidents of the county bar and local property owners associations.

“I’m going to file a complaint for common law nuisance in circuit court, as well as seek to have the county enforce the violation of zoning laws,” said retired attorney Albert Key, adding he may invite other residents to join in the lawsuit and administrative complaint. “We have a very solid record that I can take all the way to the Supreme Court if I want to.”

Key is no stranger to such litigation. Late last year he won a case before the state high court, which ruled the boardwalk stretching south along the shore of Mobile Bay near the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa to Zundel Road is a public walkway.

Neither the Dorgans, nor their attorney or on-site wedding planner, responded to several phone calls and emails for comment.

“I really can’t say a whole lot at this point,” Jackson said. “I’ve had discussions with Mr. Dorgan, and I’ve had discussions with the people who are complaining. I need to talk with the county’s legal staff just to sort through it all and figure it out. The bed-and-breakfast is separate from the other issue. It’s just difficult to keep the two separate.”

Editor’s note: Mike Odom lives on property adjacent to Dorgan’s Inn.