It wasn't even close. A unanimous decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Riley Administration's attempt to build a luxury hotel on State Park Property on the gulf. The original state owned hotel was destroyed by Hurricain Ivan in 2004. Riley and Co wanted to lease the property to Auburn University which would then lease it to private developers for 70 years to build the place. But the court found that state law limits contracts for concessions in state parks to 12 years. The court specifically ruled against the attempt to use a legal side-step to get around the limit by using Auburn. Riley's press office cries that the decision means the state will continue to lose convention business to Florida. Next step? They'll probably try to convince the legislature to change the law to allow their project, but a lot of folks for varying reasons will be fighting it, including the Alabama State Employee Association. State Park employees are state workers. Employees of the new private facility place would not be. And then there's the argument that state facilities should be affordable by the average Alabama resident, not only the top tier. If the hotel and convention center is such a good idea, why not let some for-profit company buy private land and build it?
Glad to hear that a developer is not grabbing more of the public's property. Now if only we could find ways to properly use the state's funds, a nice State Park could be rebuilt there.
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