Independent local reporting from the Eastern Shore
The nation’s semiquincentennial lands this summer. From Daphne’s June 26 kickoff to two nights of racing in Loxley, an all-day Fourth in Robertsdale, a 250-musician concert in Fairhope, and fireworks along the coast, here’s the Independence Day schedule taking shape across Baldwin County.
The Daphne City Council's July 6 business meeting is led by a final vote on a 180-day pause on new garden-apartment development, along with an update to the city's garbage-collection rules and two alcohol licenses for the new Aldi on Mill Lane.
Four unincorporated parcels at the southeast corner of County Road 13 and Mosley Road are the subject of case ZC 26.06, a conditional annexation request seeking R-1 low-density single-family zoning. The Fairhope Planning Commission opens a public hearing on the matter Monday, July 6, 2026.
The City of Daphne and Baldwin County will consider amending a 2023 road construction agreement to redirect any savings from a nearly finished roundabout project toward widening and resurfacing three additional roads. The Daphne Public Works Committee takes up the amendment Monday, July 6, 2026.
Murphy Oil USA, filing for property owner Corte Cave/Mitchell 1, LLC, wants to build a 2,824-square-foot automobile service station on the northwest corner of State Highways 181 and 104. City planning staff recommend approval, with conditions, when case SR 26.04 comes before the Fairhope Planning Commission on Monday, July 6.
At its June 15 meeting, the Foley City Council adopted a resolution hiring Williams Blackstock Architects to design a new senior center — and got its first public look at preliminary renderings for the long-planned aquatics center.
An ordinance on the June 29 agenda would extend Fairhope's pause on higher-density residential and subdivision applications — in place since February 2025 — by one month, through Aug. 16. That is a shorter step than the city's earlier extensions, even though the zoning overhaul behind the pause isn't expected to take effect until 2027.
Barry Moore won the Republican nomination for Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, with John Wahl (lieutenant governor) and Katherine Robertson (attorney general) also advancing in unofficial returns. In Baldwin County, voters picked their two local winners — and split from the state in two races. All figures are unofficial until certified.
Alabama's primary runoff is Tuesday, June 16. Eight contests remain on Baldwin County ballots — five statewide Republican races, the Democratic U.S. Senate race, and two local races — and the winners advance to the Nov. 3 general election. Here's every matchup, how each candidate finished May 19, and how to vote.
The council gets its first public look at renderings for Foley's long-planned aquatics center at its June 15 work session, and in the same meeting will vote on hiring a Birmingham firm to design a new senior center — two pieces of a slate of major civic facilities the city is advancing.
At its June 2 meeting, the City Council gave a first reading to an ordinance that would replace the city's noise rules with an expanded code — one that cites a rising number of complaints "especially at night" and federal findings linking noise to health problems. As of mid-June the measure has not returned for a final vote.
The City Council will take up a resolution at its June 16 Committee of the Whole authorizing a $504,000 grant agreement with the National Audubon Society to fund stewardship of beach-nesting birds through 2029. The money traces to Deepwater Horizon oil-spill restoration funds.
Emergency medical calls drove roughly 63% of the month's activity. The figures went before the Public Safety Committee on June 8.
An Orange Beach City Council seat is open after Councilmember Jerry Johnson resigned for family reasons at the council's June 2 meeting, according to a resolution in the June 16 packet. The council is set to formally declare the Place No. 3 vacancy and appoint a successor by majority vote Tuesday.
Under Orange Beach's zoning code, a bumper car ride is allowed only in industrial areas — so adding one to Bubba's Seaside Mini Golf takes a rezoning. The City Council holds a public hearing and first reading Tuesday on the ordinance, Case No. 0503-PUD-26.
A developer is asking Baldwin County to rezone about 153 acres of farmland north of County Road 54 for a 344-lot planned community with a clubhouse, pool and an 8- to 9-acre lake. Neighbors on River Road North have written the county objecting to survey crews' use of what they say is a private road.
The County Commission on June 2 approved a service agreement setting how Sheriff's Office deputies are paid for immigration enforcement work under the county's 287(g) partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The item passed as part of the consent agenda.
Draft Ordinance 2026-20, on the June 8 city council agenda for discussion, would halt new apartment, townhome, condominium, and duplex applications for six months while Daphne rewrites its land use rules. Projects already in the pipeline would be exempt.
The Planning Commission unanimously recommended that the City Council approve a site plan for a Foosackly's chicken-finger restaurant and a Just Chillin' ice cream shop on Lot 4 of the Encounter development at Highway 181. The plan revives an approval that had lapsed since 2025.
Lieb Engineering wants to bond — rather than build — the turn lanes, sidewalks, stormwater pond and landscape buffer required at the Hwy 104/181 gas-station site, deferring the work until a future tenant breaks ground. Planning staff recommended denying the subdivision and all three subdivision waivers.
The K-6 school on Corte Road is scheduled to open in August, relieving crowding at Belforest Elementary. Its opening also redraws attendance lines across Daphne — changes that brought families out to public meetings last fall.
A developer wants to add 16 deeded boat slips to the common pier in the Moondance subdivision — a change from the neighborhood's 2021 approval, which said the pier would offer only temporary docking and “no permanent boat slips.” The City Council holds a public hearing and first reading June 2.
An updated version of the city's official zoning map is advancing at Daphne City Hall, listed for a public hearing and a first reading of the adopting ordinance on the June 1 council agenda. The revision consolidates the annexations, pre-zonings and rezonings the city approved between November and April.
A proposed ordinance would charge for parking on six beach-area streets that are now free and replace the current daily fee with an hourly rate. Gulf Shores residents and property owners with a Hurricane Re-Entry Decal would continue to park at no charge.
The City Council is set to review a recommendation to borrow $23 million from SouthState Bank over 20 years for infrastructure projects and to retire $8.2 million owed on a line of credit. A financial adviser compared four bank proposals before recommending SouthState at a 4.2 percent interest rate.
