GULF SHORES — In the end, it came down to clarity, or a lack there of.

Honours Golf, which runs the 36-hole golf course and clubhouse in Craft Farms, is seeking to sell a lot adjacent to the clubhouse property and use the money for improvements.

On Aug. 23 the applicants, in the person of Jason Tickle representing Honours Golf, and Doug Bailey of Hutchinson, Rasch and Moore Engineering, asked for a modification in the Craft Farms planned unit development with regard to the parcel.

It is a 6.37-acre piece identified in the master plan as open recreational space. The intent is to sell to a contractor and build a 22-home subdivision with two-, three- or four-bedroom homes approximately 1,800 square feet with minimum lot size of 5,000 square feet.

From there, in the eyes of city staff, the planning commission and current residents of Craft Farms, the plan is seen as muddled. Council chambers were packed with residents from the 575-acre PUD, most there to oppose the change.

“There is considerable information that is lacking,” Planning Commission Chairman Bob Steiskal said.

Most of commission members present agreed with that assessment. Just over an hour into the discussion, Pete Vakakes made a motion to deny the PUD modification to allow for the subdivision.

“I just don’t think you’re properly prepared to come before this body,” Vakakes said. “These people are here to hear what you are going to do. And you’re not ready to tell these folks anything.”

His recommendation passed with Vakakes, Steiskal, Hartly Brokenshaw, Larry Parris and Jim Eberlein voting in favor and Scott Shamburger had the only vote against it. Shamburger wanted to table the action until five questions raised by the Planning Department were addressed by the applicants.

“Staff, after reviewing the application, believes there are quite a few specifics that were not clarified enough for us to make a recommendation on this,” Bauer said. “We’re not sure why the change to Craft Farms is warranted, how the proposal fits in with the existing development in terms of lot sizes, lot widths, size of housing and things of that nature.”

The Planning Commission vote is a recommendation that will be automatically forwarded to the city council which can agree with the recommendation or vote to allow the subdivision. Or the applicant can withdraw the modification request.

The next council work session is Sept. 6, the day after the Labor Day holiday.

The meeting started with City Planner Andy Bauer and staff recommending just that. Bauer said the crowd was the largest he’d seen for a Planning Commission meeting in his 11 years with the city.

He said the city received four letters against allowing the subdivision and a petition against it backed by 67 percent of the residents of Craft Farms.

Resident Larry Snedeker, like many who spoke during the public hearing, wasn’t impressed with what was presented.

“None of those five points have been answered, you don’t have any plans in front of you,” Snedeker said. “I can go to the five-and-dime and get that plan drawn up. Just give me the boundaries of the survey and I can put that up on a board. That’s all we’ve done.”

Steiskal specifically addressed one of Bauer’s points concerning what the homes would look like.

“We did not suppose to know architecturally what the community would want,” Tickle said, answering the chairman’s inquiry. “We saw this as an ongoing dialogue where step one was to see if the change could occur. Step two would be to engage in a series of focus groups with the community to weigh in on what they would like to see.”

All well and good, Steiskal said, but those discussions should have been held and issues clarified before coming before the commission.

“Your plan has merit from wanting to know the answers to those kind of questions,” Steiskal said. “The trouble is you’re here in front of this board now and we’re expecting you to have done that before it ever gets to us. Not necessarily the specific designs but surely what you plan on doing.

“I don’t know how many of the people in the audience with whom you’ve had prior meetings, but chances are they want to hear those kinds of questions answered as well.”

Resident Kim Gordon questioned the Honours financial plan and what happens once this infusion of capital from the subdivision was spent.

“This is fundamentally a breakdown in club operations and an inefficient program that they are trying to impose on us because they are not managing,” Gordon said. “They have no financial plan other than this one-time cash injection. If they’re not changing anything else in their operation we’re going to be right back here again.”

A representative familiar with the real estate market who wished to remain anonymous said an original sale of the land could bring as much as $500,000. Subdivided, the same source said, it would bring $35,000 per lot or $750,000.