Baldwin County's July 21 Agenda: A Garbage-Rate Increase, a $10 Million Disaster Credit Line and a $74.5 Million Loxley Plant

The Baldwin County Commission's July 21 agenda runs long, and some of its most consequential items are tucked into the consent list that ordinarily passes in a single vote: a residential garbage-rate increase and a new $10 million line of credit for disaster spending. The same meeting will formally acknowledge a multimillion-dollar tax break for a new Loxley manufacturing plant and open a block of seven land-use public hearings.

The commission meets at the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse, 1100 Fairhope Avenue, with a 9 a.m. work session — where members set the consent agenda — followed by the regular meeting at 10 a.m. The agenda opens by adopting the minutes of the July 7 meeting, which took up jail mental-health cells, a Publix opioid-settlement payment and watershed road work.

Consent-agenda page from the July 21 Baldwin County Commission agenda, listing the Policy 7.6 garbage-rate revision (CK1) and the $10 million line of credit (CM1).

Higher garbage rates, on the consent agenda

For the first time since 2022, the county is set to raise its residential garbage rates. Resolution 2026-117 would revise Commission Policy 7.6 and take effect immediately on adoption.

Standard service — once-a-week pickup with one county cart — would rise from $17 to $19 a month, or $204 to $228 a year. Households with two carts would go from $22 to $29 a month, twice-a-week service (required in some areas) from $34 to $38, and a rented second cart from $5 to $10; back-door pickup would rise from $12 to $14. The seasonal rate for second homes would go from $102 to $114 a year.

Despite the agenda's reference to late fees, the $10 late fee is not changing. The item sits on the consent agenda as CK1, meaning it is scheduled to pass without separate discussion unless a commissioner pulls it for a vote of its own.

A $10 million disaster line of credit

A second consent item, CM1, would authorize a $10 million revolving line of credit with Regions Bank to cover cash-flow needs after a disaster. Set up as a general obligation warrant backed by the county's full faith, credit and taxing power, it would carry a variable interest rate of about 0.62 percentage points above the Term SOFR benchmark and mature Sept. 30, 2027; the county could draw against it, repay and draw again as needed.

State law limits the money to government purposes, expressly including emergencies "resulting from epidemics or floods or other forces of nature" — the kind of upfront costs, such as debris removal, that counties often carry before state and federal reimbursements arrive. The timing lines up with the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30. County records put Baldwin's outstanding long-term debt at about $133 million, well below its roughly $512 million legal limit.

A $74.5 million geothermal-equipment plant in Loxley

Under item CA1, the commission will formally acknowledge a tax abatement for Terravanta Power Systems, a manufacturer bound for the Loxley Industrial Park. The county's role is procedural: under state law, a city industrial board's abatement of county taxes does not take effect until the county is notified, so the commission is recording the Loxley Industrial Development Board's July 6 action rather than granting it.

Terravanta, a subsidiary of Loxley-based Kaishan Compressor USA, plans a roughly 200,000-square-foot plant on about 12 acres to build equipment for geothermal power plants. The company projects a $74.5 million investment and 63 jobs — 28 to start, with more added over three years — and broke ground July 9, with completion estimated by early 2029. The abatement, granted by the Loxley board, forgoes an estimated $265,000 a year in non-educational property taxes for up to 10 years, plus a one-time break of about $3.1 million on construction-related sales and use taxes.

At the July 9 groundbreaking, Loxley Mayor Richard Teal called the plant "another significant milestone in Loxley's continued growth," and Lee Lawson, president of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, called it "an exciting addition to Baldwin County's growing industrial sector."

Seven land-use hearings

After the consent vote, the commission will hold seven public hearings. One, Case PID26-01, is a site-plan change for Pallet One, the wooden-pallet maker whose Robertsdale-area plant sits on County Road 64; the company, now part of UFP Industries, wants to add a warehouse to a planned industrial development the commission approved in December.

The other six are rezonings scattered across the county's unincorporated areas. Near Loxley, two adjoining parcels on either side of Railroad Avenue at Highway 59, both owned by Randy Smith, would shift from agricultural to commercial and light-industrial zoning for a produce stand and a contractor's yard. Three more would convert Rural Agricultural land for housing — a 60-acre tract near Barnwell, 32 acres at County Roads 54 and 55, and 14 acres near Robertsdale — echoing June's hearings on the 344-home Bridle Creek development. The sixth, about 19 acres near Silverhill, is already zoned for single-family homes and would move up a density step to allow a subdivision.

Also on the agenda

The consent list runs to more than two dozen items. Among them: construction of a new female-housing addition at the Baldwin County Corrections Center in Bay Minette; a federally funded disaster-recovery project to repave County Road 65; a mid-year budget reallocation, Resolution 2026-120; adoption of a flood-warning annex to the county's emergency operations plan; one-time lump-sum payments for Sheriff's Office and Commission retirees; and building-inspection agreements with the towns of Silverhill and Summerdale.

Residents who want to speak at a public hearing must file a speaker form beforehand. Comments are limited to three minutes, or five for a group's spokesperson.