DAPHNE, Ala. — The Daphne City Council has until May 31 to submit a proposed site for a Baldwin County transit hub in order to maximize grant opportunities targeting the cooperative project’s completion.

Taylor Rider, director of the Baldwin Rural Area Transportation System, told members of the council during Monday’s work session that nearly $1.2 million in grant funding has been identified for the project that would create hubs in six Baldwin County cities to complement the hub already established in Robertsdale, but time is of the essence in bringing the Eastern Shore online without compromising the availability of funds.

“We need to identify the sites by the end of May, so we can move forward with the grant application,” Rider said.

Rider said existing BRATS routes served some 1,600 riders in the month of March, alone, via 16 buses driving 100 routes countywide, but expansion would allow the system to leverage the cooperative spirit toward the establishment of fixed routes, making public transit more available and cost effective.

Although the council has not officially selected a site, discussion centered around the probability of recommending a portion of the Jubilee Square shopping center in front of Hobby Lobby on U.S. Highway 98 because of its size and ample space for parking overflow.

“It’s a prime location,” Council President August A. Palumbo said. “The city happens to own the land, and it’s in proximity to Lake Forest, the largest residential neighborhood in the city.”

District 1 Councilman Bailey Yelding questioned whether selecting a site so far north would shortchange residents to the south who would actually have to trek to the shopping center for the park-and-ride experience.

Palumbo praised the proposed project for addressing the employment needs of the city’s business owners, many of whom have difficulty maintaining employees on the lower end of the pay scale because of transportation issues.

Rider said an ideal site for the hub would provide 1.5 acres to accommodate parking and a roughly 1,600-square-foot structure that would house an office, two restrooms and a waiting area to keep riders out of the elements. The Jubilee Square site might not require as much space because of the available overflow parking, Rider said, but Palumbo said he believes the site meets the acreage requirement.

The council dedicated the final 45 minutes of the work session to a precursory glance at proposed changes to the city’s Land Use Ordinance, acknowledging the meeting did not afford enough time to digest the Planning Commission’s 47-page synopsis which took 18 months to compile.

Cathy Barnette, who represents District 2 and serves as the council’s representative on the commission, said the task was undertaken to address issues caused by Daphne’s substantial growth over the past five years. The downturn in the economy, she said, actually afforded the commission the time it needed to step back and evaluate existing land-use designations.

City Planner Adrienne Jones lead off the commission’s “condensed” list of recommendations with proposed changes to the city’s residential designations to more clearly reflect the types of developments and allowable densities, including distinguishing between garden homes, duplexes, apartments, townhomes and mid-rise condominiums.

Discussion quickly turned, however, to the need to establish an “outdoor recreation” designation or something akin that would more appropriately categorize the city’s two golf courses, TimberCreek and LakeForest.

The former is currently zoned as a business district, while the latter has always been classified as residential.

Although no formal action was taken, the council did express a collective recommendation that the commission proceed immediately with the creation of an “outdoor recreation” category that would apply to golf courses as well as parks.

In other business, the council:

With less than one month until the publication would need to go to press for its June 1 target distribution date, however, a decision must be reached within the next two regularly scheduled council meetings, Palumbo said.