The Salt Line, Vol. 115: Baldwin County Discovers the Pause Button
Minutes of the Perdido Bay Standing Committee on Things Already Decided, Wednesday session. The weather is on every screen in the building and is not on today’s agenda; the forecast lives at /beach-today/, where it belongs. The committee takes up four matters of ordinary civic life.
Item 1: In re a 180-day moratorium
The Baldwin County Commission has enacted a 180-day moratorium on zoning change requests, on renewable energy projects, and on the development of data centers, throughout the county. The committee notes the three categories are not obviously related, and finds that this is the point. A moratorium is not a policy. It is what a government does when it would like the policy to catch up with the questions.
The committee does not rule on whether data centers belong in Baldwin County. It rules on the word “moratorium,” which is Latin for “we would like to read the file.” Counties do not usually freeze zoning in a season of calm. The commission has now bought itself six months in which nothing can be rezoned and everything can be studied.
On this coast we know what six months of studying is worth. We have watched a bridge be announced, funded in principle and broken ground on, each as a separate event. The committee’s concern is not the pause. The pause is sensible. The concern is what the pause is for. A moratorium that ends with a rulebook is government at its best. A moratorium that ends with an extension is only a longer way of saying “later.” The committee rules the commission has earned its 180 days, and will be the first to ask on day 181 what it learned.
Finding: the pause is justified. The reader should treat the next six months as the actual vote.
Item 2: In re a boat launch, described as “neglected”
Boaters say the Big Lagoon State Park boat launch remains in disrepair, limiting access, and people living near the park say it is being neglected. The committee observes that “remains” is the operative verb. Nobody reports a boat launch in disrepair for the first time and uses “remains.” That word is a timeline.
A launch ramp is the one piece of public infrastructure whose entire function is access. A beautiful park with a broken ramp is a very nice lawn with a view of a lagoon the public cannot easily get onto. The committee recommends that the state treat a ramp as the front door of a water park, not an amenity at the back of it.
Finding: neglect is a budget decision made slowly. Noted.
Item 3: In re 911 calls, and the county that keeps growing
Baldwin County’s 911 center is taking more calls as population growth fuels demand, with call volume climbing as the county grows. The committee finds this the least surprising sentence of the week. Every new rooftop is a household that will, someday, dial a number. Growth is the one kind of development that shows up in a dispatcher’s headset.
The committee does not suggest the two items are linked. It notes only that the moratorium and the call volume are the same story read from opposite ends of the building: one office decides how many people will live here, and another answers when they phone.
Finding: the county is not short of people. It may be short of the ability to be surprised by them.
Item 4: In re a local product, unfortunately without scandal
Cane Brew, a Baldwin County startup, has hit the shelves and launched a new product line online, with founders Gabriella Erdemir and Ophelia “Mama Tot” Nichols discussing the new venture. The committee has no objection, no amendment and no ruling, and wishes the record to show how restful that is. A local business launching a local product, with nothing to rezone, is the only agenda item of the day that did not require a study.
Finding: shelves are the original zoning board, and the only one that votes daily.
Adjournment
The committee notes that a coast can be run by two methods. One acts first and apologizes in the next budget cycle. The other pauses, reads, and risks being called slow. This week, for 180 days, Baldwin County chose the second. The committee, which has watched the first method for a long time, finds it can almost remember what that was like.
— Chris
P.S. Know a restaurant, charter, shop, or event we’re missing? Add it — free, Florida side or Alabama side: /submit/
