Orange Beach officials said they want to further consider their options on a potential transit feasibility study for a city trolley system, as they wait to see if ridesharing systems like Uber and Lyft are coming to the city.

Councilman Jeff Silvers said he wasn’t sure the city was ready to move forward with the transit system right now.

“I think we left there supportive of it, but we’re looking for the county commission’s support on it,” Silvers said. “I don’t know that if our vendors like Perdido Beach Resorts and some of our bigger venues are in support of it, so I just don’t know where we’re at. I think we need participation for this to be successful.”

Silvers said the city had tried it’s own system years ago, but it did not have great success.

The first system we had - it was a little bit before it’s time,” Silvers said. “Where we are with this - I don’t know. I haven’t had a whole lot of discussion with you about this.”

Councilman Jerry Johnson said the planning for the proposed public transit trolley had been going on for some time and would likely come for a vote at the next council meeting.

“I think what we want to do is at the next meeting have discussion, but we probably need to go ahead and vote at the next meeting,” Johnson said. “It’s going to take the city helping to stand it up.”

Johnson said he wasn’t sure the trolley system would necessarily address all of Orange Beach’s traffic issues.

“We have a congestion problem,” Johnson said. “We don’t have a traffic problem, so when you put a trolley on Perdido Beach Boulevard and you put them in bumper to bumper traffic, it’s going to struggle meeting these head times and scheduled stops.”

The plan for the trolley, Johnson said, was to use an app similar to what Uber and Lyft does to hail the trolley. He added the program as planned would begin with two trolleys and then hopefully get to four or five that would do a loop from Perdido Beach Resort, down Perdido Beach Boulevard to Gulf Shores and come back down Canal Road.

“In order for it go through the federal funding process, it’s going to be about a five year process before we even have four or five trolleys stood up,” Johnson said. “The support from the city could be up to $1 million per year. I don’t know that since we have issued an invitation to Uber and Lyft to operate here that this trolley would stand up against them. I think they would be a lot more efficient.”

Johnson said the initial survey done also said parking continues to be an issue across the city.

Councilman Jeff Boyd said there was one way the trolley system could be highly beneficial.

“It seems like our need to is to transport people more to prevent DUIs than it is transport people to get somewhere,” Boyd said. “That’s what the need of this city is.”

When asked for an update on the status of bringing Uber and Lyft into Orange Beach, City Administrator Ken Grimes said he had communicated to both groups.

“Lyft has responded and they’re actually going to get with their licensing division and bring, hopefully, a license,” Grimes said. “It sounds like Lyft is trying to get here before Uber does.”

Grimes said Uber had been waiting to see what actions the state would take.

“They were all waiting on the state and nothing happened, so now they have to decide what they want to do,” Grimes said.

During the meeting, the council:

- Tabled a resolution to appropriate $40,000 to participate in the 2017 Advantage Coastal Alabama Program.

- Authorized a franchise agreement for Bayside Taxi.

- Assented to purchase $35,163 worth of LED light for the Event Center.

- Approved a task order not to exceed $1,420 with Lucido Engineering and Surveying to perform survey of the mean high tide and riparian lines for the Sail Camp and Senior Center.