GULF SHORES, Ala. — Margaret Jane McDonald was doing some detail work on a customer’s car one day when a man pulled up, stopped his car and began walking around marking the ground at her business.

A few weeks earlier survey crews were in the area as well.

McDonald and husband David have operated DJ’s Auto Service Center in Gulf Shores for 11 years. It’s located just north of Fort Morgan Road on the east side of Alabama 59 in the heart of Gulf Shores.

Across the back alley to the east is the Walmart Supercenter.

McDonald began asking questions and found out Walmart wants to build an entrance from Alabama 59 to the Supercenter just south of the property she and her husband own.

“They’ve been marking and marking,” she said. “I ask them what they are doing. ‘Oh, we’re shooting lines.’ They were friendly guys, but I started asking ‘why y’all marking up our stuff?’

“We have lines drawn, markings all over our property because of this. That's the whole reason for me asking all the questions to the people that are here marking up the place. I see that Walmart only has a stick on their property and ours looks like a road map.”

Nothing’s official and no permits have been applied for, but it’s pretty much common knowledge the entrance is coming. McDonald was told by a developer the project would begin in March.

She’s concerned the construction, right in the middle of the spring break season, will hamper customers trying to come in for detailing, oil changes and mechanical work.

“We need to know what’s going to go on, what’s going to happen,” she said. “Do we need to put a sign out that says turn here for DJ’s in the traffic? Are they going to do that for us?

“We actually have people that come to visit and don’t have their work done at home. They drive down here and have it done here because we’ve been here so long.”

City officials say they aren’t sure about the plans because no paperwork has been filed with them.

“I’m kind of like everyone else,” City Planner Andy Bauer said. “I’ve heard that they want to do that. What I know is they were looking to buy land to create a driveway from 59 to Walmart. No application has been received. Quite a few people have called me.

“A couple of months ago I know they had contractors and they were looking in that area for that reason.”

McDonald began her search by asking the man with the spray can marking the concrete on her property.

“The guy asked me ‘did Walmart buy you?’” she recalled. “I said no and he said ‘well you’re the only one that wasn’t affected.’ He was the guy who came and put all the red dots and was climbing all over my electrical box and things. He was nice. He had the spray can and he dotted this place up.”

When a guy calling himself the developer – McDonald couldn’t recall his name – stopped by to look over the area of the project, she got some real information.

“It's to be built on 59 and you will turn into the new Walmart entrance,” she said. “Happy Shack has already moved up to what used to be Cahill's Deli. They have known this for about a year, so they tell us. The other building, which is Larry Lawrence Construction, will also be torn down.

“I got more info than I was supposed to. He was down here checking out everything his workers had sent him. He said he was finishing up his drawings and that they would start the project in March.”

McDonald said she was also told there would be some kind of chicken restaurant built on Alabama 59 at the new entrance.

Another part of the plan is to pave the alley, McDonald said. A strip of grass on her property lining the alley is currently littered with different-colored flags marking underground lines or utilities.

“The developer said they were going to run this road here (the alley) all the way to Murphy Oil,” she said. “They are going to pave all of this. If I wanted to cut my grass I have to pull up everything they’ve done and they’re going to have to come back out and do it again. We can’t even cut the grass.”

All she wants to know is how the construction will affect traffic flow for customers wanting cars serviced.

“I don’t know what it’s going to mean businesswise for us,” she said. “Andy Bauer said in due time that he would come and talk to the few of us that are involved.”