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In 1977, movie audiences were wowed when they first saw a 3-year-old boy get abducted by aliens inside a farmhouse while his mother frantically attempted to lock doors and close windows in “Close Encounters with the Third Kind.”

But 47 years later, it’s not UFOs that are invading the home to recreate the iconic movie scene. Instead, it’s new development of subdivisions and commercial retail swallowing up the rural landscape around the home east of Fairhope in fast-growing Baldwin County.

In a unique vote Thursday, the Fairhope City Council granted the OK to Jade Consultants LLC, working on behalf of Encounters Development LLC, to relocate the home from its longtime fixture on the northeast corner of Alabama State Routes 181 and 104.

The move will not be far. The house will remain within the footprint of a 40-acre property and will be relocated a few lots away from where it currently sits.

According to Fairhope city officials, it’s somewhat a mystery as to why the house is being uprooted and moved, although the overall property is part of an ongoing development that includes a 13-lot subdivision and a Wawa gas station.

Jade Consultants is declining to comment, and Encounters Development did not return a call for comment.

“I don’t know why it’s being moved,” said Hunter Simmons, the city’s director of planning, though he acknowledged there are ongoing plans to develop on the property where the house sits. “I don’t know if they understood the significance of the house.”

The council’s decision followed the approval of the city’s planning commission to move the two-story structure that still looks very similar from its showcase moments during the iconic sci-fi movie.

The developers plan to utilize the house for office space, with access to Route 104.

Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said she hopes property owners will do even more and create a historic marker or provide additional wayfinding information that connects the house to the movie directed by Stephen Spielberg and is considered the most financially successful movie ever produced in Alabama.

In 2007, on the film’s 30th anniversary, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the movie “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The movie was filmed in the summer of 1976 in Mobile, Fairhope and Bay Minette. The Bay Minette location is where the movie’s evacuation scene takes place. The movie starred actor Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role of Roy Neary as well as the late actresses Melinda Dillion and Terri Garr.

“I’m hoping they use it as an educational component to let people know about the filming that goes on here in Baldwin County and Fairhope,” Sullivan said.

While the movie’s plot has the farmhouse in Muncie, Ind., the alien abduction of young Barry was filmed inside the house and at a time when Baldwin County was much smaller. According to Census figures, Baldwin County had a population of around 106,000 residents. Since then, the county has more than doubled in size to a population of over 231,000.

Fairhope, with a population of 25,000 residents, was a small town at the time of the movie’s filming. In recent years, Publix, Walmart and a host other retailers and large subdivisions have popped up along Route 181.

Simmons said he’s unsure exactly how the developers plan to move the house. But he said the movie’s diehard fanbase is keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings.

“We’ve had people all over the country calling,” Simmons said. “It’s hard to take that volume (of calls) when you are a small department. A lot of people related to the movie industry have chimed in. Locals drive by it. We appreciate the developer understanding (the home’s significance). They’ve even taken the name (Encounters) into their development.”

Sullivan said the house’s plight stirred some buzz on social media ahead of a Planning Commission meeting into the matter on Nov. 4.

“I think, obviously, the Planning Commission meeting brought to life what this house means to Fairhope and even what it means to the country,” she said. “There was a lot of social media buzz about it.”

The council had a little bit of fun before approving the relocation. A map shown on a large screen during the council meeting had an alien face posted on the lot where the house will be relocated.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Councilman Corey Martin about having the house in Fairhope. “I don’t know if many people know that house is in Fairhope. To get that recognition once again (shows that) Fairhope is on the map nationally. And I do think they are doing the right thing to move and secure the house.”