What the New Living Shoreline Will Change Along Orange Beach's Waterfront Park

"To see it come to fruition after 10 years of talking about it, it's pretty awesome," Orange Beach City Council Chairman Pro-tem Jeff Silvers said of the Waterfront Park shoreline project, as reported by OBA on October 18. Construction on the first phase is scheduled to begin in late October. It starts on the Wolf Bay shoreline in front of the Orange Beach Wind & Water Learning Center.

The people behind it already rebuilt something nearby. The Nature Conservancy and the engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol are partnering with the city on Waterfront Park. They are the same partners behind last year's restoration of Robinson and Walker Islands at Perdido Pass. If you have taken a boat past those islands since 2025, you have seen a preview of what the park's bayfront is designed to become.

The preview sitting at Perdido Pass

NOAA's post-construction report on the Lower Perdido Islands lays out the scale. Prime contractor MD Thomas worked from February 17 to August 23, 2025. The crew placed about 211,000 cubic yards of sand, rehabilitated the rock revetment on Robinson Island's north side, and put in 200,000 plantings across the restored islands. NOAA Fisheries counts 30 acres of restored or created habitat in all: 6 acres subtidal, 4 acres marsh, 13 acres shrub, 3 acres dunes and 4 acres upland.

The island work also set the rules for public use. The Nature Conservancy says Robinson Island's beaches and nearshore areas are open to the public. Walker Island stays off limits to foot traffic, as it was before the restoration. OBA's flyover coverage asked boaters to enjoy Robinson's edge and stay out of the planted interior. It also asked them to keep Walker and its new additions free of people so the birds have the space. The city, TNC and the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program back a no-wake campaign called "Don't Rock the Roost." It comes with a map of no-wake zones around the restored habitat.

Waterfront Park uses the same approach on a smaller and more public stretch of water. The islands got sand, native plants and rock to hold them in place. The park is getting beach fill, native marsh and low breakwaters. The goal in both places is to take wave energy out of the water before it reaches the sand.

Three stretches of Wolf Bay, in the order they are planned

OBA's October 18 report describes the project as three phases along the park's public edge:

1. The Wind & Water Learning Center shoreline. Plans call for beach fill, marsh creation with native vegetation, and low-elevation nearshore riprap breakwaters to reduce wave energy and future erosion. Coastal Regulatory Manager Woody Speed told the council this phase is fully permitted and scheduled to start in late October.
2. The Coastal Arts Center bayfront. This phase restores about 430 feet of shoreline using marsh fill, native marsh plantings, rock sills, geotextile stabilization and strategically placed breakwaters. Speed said it could begin before the end of 2026 or in early 2027.
3. The beach at the Waterfront Park Pier. If funding remains after phase two, the third phase would renourish the beach around the base of the pier.

The second phase is where the numbers get big. It calls for about 2,975 cubic yards of marsh fill, 750 cubic yards of breakwater material and more than 15,000 native plants. At the islands, 200,000 plantings covered 30 acres. At the park, 15,000 will go along a 430-foot frontage, which makes it a dense planting next to a public walkway.

That walkway is a stated priority. The phase-two design is meant to protect the existing public boardwalk while improving habitat and the look of the Arts Center waterfront. A separate plan to extend the walkway is also underway.

Why the third phase is closer than it looks

The funding comes from the remaining balance of a $12.8 million NOAA Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience grant. That award went to the broader Perdido Watershed Initiative, and Robinson Island was one of its projects. The island work also drew on Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act funding through NOAA, plus Deepwater Horizon damage-assessment money administered by the Alabama Trustee Implementation Group.

The money now looks like it will go further than first planned. On September 2, Gulf Coast Media reported that bids for the Waterfront Park work came in lower than expected. Assistant Coastal Resources Director Nicole Woerner wrote in a memo to council that the savings create "the potential to use available project funds to complete the remaining components at the Coastal Arts Center of Orange Beach and the recreational beach area and, therefore, complete the overall project."

The original grant scope covered only phase one at the Wind & Water Learning Center and a wooden bulkhead east of the center. The same Gulf Coast Media report says the funding can now also cover the shoreline north of the Coastal Arts Center and the 350 feet of recreational beach next to it, west of the park's fishing pier. The memo describes the payoff of completing all three: Waterfront Park would become "a highly visible demonstration of nature-based coastal resilience for the community."

Speed was quoted in a similar spirit in the October report. "Initially, we weren't really prepared, but things have changed, and it looks like TNC will be able to fund a longer stretch of shoreline than we originally thought." The pier beach is still described as dependent on remaining funds. Even so, the budget picture moved in its favor after the bids came in.

What the rock and marsh are meant to do

Erosion on the Wolf Bay shoreline has long been a concern, according to Speed. He added that the breakwaters and marsh are expected to improve fishing in the area. The reasoning matches what was done at Perdido Pass. In mid-August 2024, months before the main island work began in early 2025, scientists started moving seagrass out of the construction zones. Seagrass serves as nursery habitat for blue crabs, shrimp and fish. Low breakwaters and planted marsh give small fish the same kind of sheltered edge. That matters to anyone who casts from the Waterfront Park Pier.

A finished living shoreline will look different from today's bayfront. The engineering will sit low near the waterline, with a band of marsh grasses between the water and the sand. OBA warned during the island project that work areas "may resemble a construction project initially as dredging and staging occur." Expect the same while the park's shoreline is being built.

The calendar around the work

The shoreline project lines up with a change in leadership at the Coastal Arts Center. Desiree Hodge, the center's director, is set to retire on October 30. The council approved a professional-services contract for her to run the 2027 Orange Beach Festival of Art as an independent contractor. The festival is held on the grounds of the Coastal Arts Center and Waterfront Park, so it is the first big event that phase two could affect.

Festival dates come from Visit Gulf Shores & Orange Beach. Phase timing comes from the city's briefing to council and could change as construction moves along.

The city lists the Coastal Arts Center at 26389 Canal Road. Its office, gallery and gift shop are open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed on weekends. Coastal Lifestyle Magazine described the center in February. The Hot Shop glassblowing studio runs live demonstrations and weekday "Make Your Own Glass" sessions at 9:30 a.m. by appointment. The center also has a 10,000-square-foot fine-arts gallery and The Clay Studio.

Next door, the Wind & Water Learning Center offers sailing, paddle sports and outdoor learning, according to Visit Gulf Shores & Orange Beach. Programs include youth sail camps, kayak rentals, private sailing and kayak classes, and seasonal monthly full-moon paddles with live music. The phase-one breakwaters are planned for the shoreline directly in front of that center.

At Coate Connection, we pay attention to changes like this because they shape how a neighborhood feels long before they show up anywhere else. If you live near Canal Road or Wolf Bay and want to talk about what the Waterfront Park work could mean for your corner of Orange Beach, schedule a free consultation and we'll go over it with you.