Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – Thanks to an $85 million bond issue approved by voters in 2022, Southwest District Superintendent Matt Young says Alabama’s state parks in the best shape likely in the history of the system.

“We’re 21 parks strong,” Young said at the July 10 Gulf Shores City Council meeting. “I’m happy to say that your state parks are healthy at this point. There’s always been a little bit of history behind it and there’s always people asking ‘is Gulf State Park supporting the entire state park system.’ No. But at one point that was true. That was quite a while ago and I’m happy to say as of today on behalf of the commissioner that all 21 state parks are self-sufficient.”

Of those state parks, Young says Gulf State Park is one of the most successful in Alabama.

“Gulf State Park is probably what I would consider the crown jewel,” Young said. “I know my colleagues in the north don’t like to hear that but the reality of it is when you talk about occupancy it’s 80 to 90 percent occupied year-round. Currently, we’re at 98 percent occupied. We take reservations a year in advance.”

And, when customers change their minds about a stay in the park, those spaces are quickly snapped up.

“We receive daily about 42 cancellations,” Young said. “By the end of the day, those are full. So, there is a demand for a product and that’s a very exciting thing. We have people from all 50 states visiting and during our Hangout Music Festival and other things like the Shrimp Festival we do get international guests.”

Young gave an update on lots of projects either ongoing or on the drawing board, including improvements at the Romar Beach access, cabins on Lake Shelby, repairs to the Gulf State Park pier and adding campsites.

Some of the upgrades, including cabin repairs and adding cabins were paid for before the bond issue was blessed by voters.

“We currently have 17 new lakeside cabins going in at Lake Shelby,” Young said. “That’s an $8.8 million project that the state has reinvested in itself. That was long before the bond was put in place, so they were taking money from what we generate investing back into the park. With that, we’ll add almost 30 cabins on our Lake Point plus the 500 rooms that we have at the lodge in addition to the 500 RV sites that we have.”

GULF STATE PARK PIER

“Probably the biggest thing on everybody’s mind right now is our Gulf State Park Pier and I’m happy to announce that we did award a bid to MD Thomas, one of our local contractors,” Young said. “That bid has been issued and a note to proceed by the commissioner himself and signed by the governor.”

Work has already started on forming the concrete for the pier repairs and Young hopes to start on the $12.6 million project as early as November.

“At that point, we will probably shut the pier down for the duration of the project which, we hope, will be completed by this time next year,” Young said.

ROMAR BEACH ACCESS

While currently closed for the work on the parking lot and adding restrooms, Young said the improvements will greatly improve the popular access.

“At Romar Beach, we currently have a new parking lot enhancement going on there,” he said. “We’re adding 41 sites which will bring it up to approximately 80 parking sites and a brand-new air-conditioned restroom. That’s exciting because that’s a highly demanded area and it services both communities (Gulf Shores & Orange Beach) for us.”

CAMPGROUND

While the work isn’t likely to start until 2024, Young said plans are in the works to proceed with a project that will up the number of campsites to about 800 including the 500 already in place.

“We do have plans in place to expand our campground,” he said. “There are right now approximately 300 campsites placed on that and that is funded by the state right now. We have $10 million set aside for that initially plus more money if we need it to expand that project right now. We don’t have a date on that right now. We’re constantly going through the analysis, surveying and then eventually the construction plans will be drawn up. We anticipate that sometime in 2024.”

These new sites will likely end up where the golf course was previously located, Young said.