While Bentley threatens to close parks, enviro groups hold up projects that could make them profitable

Gulf Shores, Alabama photo by Flickr user John W. Tuggle

GULF SHORES, Ala. — While the Bentley administration mulls closing down 15 state parks this summer if tax increases are not passed, developments that could make those parks more profitable and self-sustaining are being held up by environmental groups.

Two Alabama state parks, Gulf Shores State Park and Oak Mountain State Park, have attempted to build multimillion dollar lodges in recent years but have seen them stalled by lawsuits and threats from the Gulf Action Network and Keep Oak Mountain Wild.

The Lodge at the Lake Guntersville State Park completed a massive $26 million renovation in 2008, and has since become an incredibly popular wedding and tourist destination. The Lake Guntersville State Park was profitable until the April 2011 tornadoes wrought severe damage on its camp grounds.

State leaders hope lodges or hotels at the Gulf Shores and Oak Mountain State Parks could duplicate the success of the Lake Guntersville State Park, making those parks even more profitable and propping up some of the parks with less revenue.

A hotel alongside educational and ecological areas run by the University of Alabama at the Gulf Shores State Park, and a 175-room “lodge” on the Oak Mountain State Park in Shelby County have been proposed.

A large convention center on the Gulf Shores State Park was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, but merely replacing the convention center would be a step backward according to leadership at the State Parks department.

“You don’t just put it back,” said State Parks director Greg Lein of the convention center. “Why do you rebuild a building that was built in the 1970s? You need to think about the present and the future.”

The Gulf Shores State Park project is being blocked by the Gulf Action Network, which is suing to keep the state from using funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to help finance the project.

“When you look at recreational loss of use and the criteria for what constitutes loss of use, hotel and convention center does not fall into that category,” said policy analyst for the Gulf Restoration Network Jordan Macha. “There were no oiled convention centers during the BP disaster.”

Meanwhile, the Keep Oak Mountain Wild non-profit is campaigning against the proposed lodge at the Oak Mountain State Park, which is estimated to cost $35 million, but expected to bring $18.4 million to the economy every year.

Hundreds of Alabamians have spoken out because of Yellowhammer’s coverage of the potential parks closings over the last week, and their message is overwhelmingly the same: Keep our parks open, and do it without raising taxes. Allowing these two new tourism-increasing facilities to be built while also taking steps to ensure the natural beauty of the parks is maintained could be one way for the state to do just that.