Orange Beach Weighs 16 Boat Slips for a Moondance Pier Its 2021 Approval Said Would Have None

The Orange Beach City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and a first reading June 2 on a request to allow 16 boat slips on the common pier in the Moondance subdivision, a waterfront community off Moondance Loop, according to the council's agenda and the city's staff report.

Agenda excerpt, Orange Beach City Council regular meeting, June 2, 2026, page 2.

The request — filed by Mark Keel Construction on behalf of Two Fish Properties LLC — seeks a "minor modification" to the Moondance Planned Unit Development to permit 16 finger-pier slips on the subdivision's existing common pier at 29917 Moondance Loop, a staff memo from City Planner Griffin Powell states. It is Case No. 0408-PUDA-26, an amendment to the city's zoning ordinance, Ordinance No. 172.

The change would revise a condition set when the subdivision was approved. In 2021, Two Fish Properties rezoned roughly nine acres from single-family (RS-1) to a Planned Unit Development for a 27-lot subdivision with a shared common area and pier. The approved master plan said the pier would be refurbished as a common amenity offering "temporary docking for Moondance residents only," and that "no permanent boat slips will be provided on the common pier." The three waterfront lots, 11 through 13, were allowed private slips on their own property.

According to the staff memo, the applicant recently applied for a marine permit to build the 16 slips, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management have approved them. Staff told the applicant that because the master plan prohibits slips on the common pier, a modification to the PUD is required.

Under the application, the slips would be deeded or assigned rather than rented, with no boat lifts permitted, and the applicant would decide how they are assigned. Subdivision residents would keep access to the common pier. Because the slips would serve lots that are not on the water, the memo notes the change would also need a deviation from the city's definition of an "accessory structure," which normally must sit on the same lot as the home it serves.

The proposal is not new to the council. A public hearing on the same case appeared on the May 19 agenda.

A public hearing gives residents a chance to speak for or against a proposal before the council votes. A first reading is the formal introduction of the ordinance, which is typically considered at more than one meeting before adoption.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.