Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – Gulf Shores has an ambitious plan in the works to not only bring a park to Coastal Gateway Boulevard but also a new fire station, elementary school and even a road connecting Coastal Gateway to County Road 6.

It will be done most likely in phases, Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, Grant Brown said. The city council recently hired consulting firm Dix-Hite for $1.25 million to come up with a master plan for the huge parcel and construction designs and oversight for phase one of the multi-year project.

“The park master plan will include the whole 127 acres and includes the position of the park road that will go through the property, ultimately connecting County Road 6 to the south up to Coastal Gateway Boulevard,” Brown said. “It jumps across Coastal Gateway Boulevard and actually, there is a road that is being built between Raley Farms and Stonegate.”

The road will meet the intersection with the new park road and that road could in the future be an alternative route north and south between Foley and Gulf Shores, Brown said. But the part of the roadway through the park parcel won’t exactly be a straight shot.

“But making sure that the park road is a very windy, curvy road, so it’s not going to be a raceway,” Brown said.

As far as the park itself, Brown said in public input meetings citizens have asked for just about every amenity available, including swimming pools, a splash park, trails, lakes, open flat fields, dog park, skateboard park, pickleball courts, basketball courts.

“With 127 acres and over time, we’ll be able to put all those amenities in the park,” Brown said. “A new recreation center which probably won’t make phase one because the rec center alone is probably $24 million or so. But the goal is to try and master plan the whole thing and then chip away at it a few years at a time.”

City staffers will meet with Dix-Hite during the month of July and meet with the steering committee.

“It’s a few of our city councilmen, some from the recreation committee, Mark Acreman our city engineer, our parks people, and we’ll review the master plan and hear what some of the pricing is for the different phasing,” Brown said. “We’re planning on coming up with a phasing recommendation because obviously the park when it gets built out will be many millions of dollars.”

For public services, two of the 127 acres in the northeast corner of the property are reserved for a fire station. Another 15 acres is being reserved for a future elementary school.

Once the master plan is developed, Brown said it will be presented to the public sometime in August.

“We’ll have a town hall meeting where we’ll invite the public to look at it and once we have feedback and make whatever modifications from the public sometime in September we’ll present the overall master plan but particularly the phase one we can build and one we can afford to bid out,” Brown said.