FOLEY – After several months of public input and preparations, a plan to guide Foley during the next five years of progress is ready for consideration.

Foley’s Strategic Plan is on the agenda for the City Council meeting Monday, Sept. 16. The meeting begins at 4 p.m. at Foley City Hall.

The plan will identify municipal goals and priorities to determine the future direction for city related services and projects to maintain a high quality of life for Foley’s citizens and guests. The city will also use the plan to help prepare future budgets.

Foley officials and consultants met with residents in a series of meetings earlier this year to discuss public opinions about the needs of the community and the best ways to prepare for growth.

The city also conducted an online survey asking residents their thoughts on growth and development in Foley as part of the plan. 

Foley is the fastest growing city in Baldwin County, according to a 2024 population estimate by the World Population Review. The study found that the city’s population was 26,617, up from 20,598 in the 2020 census, an increase of 6.08% a year. 

Foley added more people in less than four years, 6,019, than lived in the city in 1990, when the population was 4,937.

Other items on the council agenda for Monday include:

  • A public hearing to declare weeds a nuisance and to order its abatement at a lot on Hickory Street.
  • A public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance to require a permit to perform work within the public right of way.
  • A public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance to adopt a right-of-way permit fee schedule.
  • Proclaim Sept. 17 through Sept. 23 Constitution Week.
  • Hear a presentation on the Main Street Alabama Award of Excellence.
  • Discuss the first reading of an ordinance exempting the proceeds from the sale of hearing instruments from the city’s sales and use tax.
  • Hear monthly department reports on tax and permit plan revenue and the Community Development, Police and Fire departments.
  • A report on bills paid and approved in August.
  • Hold the first reading of an ordinance approving a deed correction for the conveyance of property to Baldwin County.
  • Hold the second reading of an ordinance to adopt a right-of-way permit fee schedule.
  • Hold the second reading of an ordinance to require a permit to perform work within a right of way.
  • Authorize employees to enter property on South Cedar Street to abate a public nuisance.
  • Reappoint Phillip Hinesley to the Graham Creek Nature Preserve Advisory Board.
  • Reappoint Mark Jones to the Graham Creek Nature Preserve Advisory Board.
  • Reappoint Janice Johnson to the Senior Center Advisory Board.
  • Reappoint Otis Gatlin to the Industrial Development Board.
  • Memorialize the trade and surplus of mowers in the Parks and Recreation Department.
  • Amend the pay classification plan in the Police Department and Nature Parks Department.
  • Declare two rifles as surplus to be turned over the Foley Police Department for department use.
  • Approve a one-day members only pop-up local arts and crafts show.
  • Approve a resolution of support for the Wolf Bay Watershed Management Plan.
  • Approving monthly bids.
  • Submit a project to the Highway Safety Improvement Program call for projects.
  • Apply for the Fiscal Year 2025 Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program II, known as ATRIP II, for signal and intersection improvements on the Foley Beach Express intersections.
  • Accept the subrecipient grant agreement from the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.
  • Approve a non-budgeted capital purchase for the Foley Police Department using money from the Local Drug Fund in the 2025 fiscal year.
  • An agreement between the Coastal Weather Research Center and the City of Foley for the Weather Forecasting and Warning Service.
  • Reschedule upcoming council meeting dates due to holidays.
  • Amend library policies and procedures.
  • Assist with adding an event pavilion at the Swift-Coles Historic Home in Bon Secour.
  • Authorize employees to enter property on Hickory Street to abate a public nuisance.
  • Appropriate funds for the East Verbena Avenue inlet modification and lighting improvements.
  • Set a public hearing to declare weeds a public nuisance on a vacant lot on a corner of Hickory Street and Baldwin County 20 and ordering its abatement.
  • Appropriate funds for the Mills Park Improvement Capital Project using impact fees.
  • Writing off certain accounts as uncollectible.