Hotel plan wins zoning change - al.com

Hotel plan wins zoning change - al.com: "ORANGE BEACH — Revoking the special zoning that would have allowed developers to build the city's tallest towers, elected officials Tuesday rezoned a patch of that 15-acre Gulf-front property to accommodate a 160-room hotel.

Tuesday's City Council meeting featured a lengthy debate that centered more on Orange Beach's public notice policies than the hotel plans. But eventually the council voted unanimously to re scind the planned unit development zoning for the defunct Mandolay Beach project and to rezone a piece of that property from a classification that allowed condo towers to one that permitted hotels.

The property sits across Ala. 182 from the entrance to the Palm Pointe shopping center just west of the beach highway's intersection with Ala. 161. It is owned by BankTrust, one of six lenders that foreclosed on various parts of the Mandolay Beach acreage. And BankTrust has a deal in place to sell the property to Innisfree Hotels Inc. before the end of the month, BankTrust and Innisfree representatives said Tuesday."