To Get Into Gulf Shores Schools, an Oak Road Household Asks the City to Annex Its Lot

The Gulf Shores City Council is scheduled to consider annexing a property at 19175 Oak Road West, beginning with a work session on June 1, according to the agenda (item 8.A, Planning and Zoning; case ANX26-000004).

Agenda packet, June 1 work session, page 31 — the planning department's annexation summary.

The property owner requests annexation of the roughly 0.57-acre property into the city limits "for the purpose of 'attend City schools,'" the agenda summary states. The parcel is currently in unincorporated, unzoned Baldwin County, holds a single-family home and is contiguous to the Gulf Shores city limits.

Gulf Shores broke away from Baldwin County's public schools to form its own city school system in 2019, the first municipality in the county to do so. Enrollment is tied to living in the city, so for households just outside the limits, annexation is the way in — and requests like this one reach the council with some regularity.

The summary lists the surrounding properties: the City Sportsplex to the north, single-family neighborhoods to the east and west, and commercial and outdoor-storage uses along with the City Cultural Arts Center to the south. Under Section 3-8 of the city's zoning ordinance, a property with an existing single-family use is immediately zoned in a range from R-1-1 to R-1-4 upon annexation, based on the most comparable adjacent properties. Staff recommend the lot be zoned R-1-4, described in the agenda as medium-density residential.

The June 1 meeting is a work session, where the council discusses items rather than votes. The agenda lists a council meeting on June 8 for the annexation to be acted on.