South Somerset Street in Alys Beach extends from the amphitheater on county road 30-A to the public plaza on the dunes above the Gulf of Mexico. The mixed-use buildings throughout its length will likely become the focus of the town’s retail, and so part of the purpose of the study was to determine the street’s retail, residential, and parking capacity. Buildings will range from one to three stories of residential above continuous ground floor retail. Parking can be accommodated in a combination of mid-block surface parking and select sub-grade parking.

At the bottom of Somerset, thirty-foot-wide stairs ascend from the foot of Somerset Street to the plaza and beach club. The site is about an acre, 200 feet on a side, and divided equally between the club and plaza program. Both halves of the gulf front site pile up in terraces that rise from south to north so that all points on the site enjoy great water views. Bars, restaurants and a few residential units line the north and east sides of the plaza. The club site on the west side of the site also has a public restaurant and bar on its north side. The entire program is over a podium of structured parking, so that the plaza might clear the primary dunes and the scrub oak that grows on top of it.