GULF SHORES, Ala. - Councilman Philip Harris used the committee reports portion of Monday night’s regular council meeting to refute accusations stemming from a paid political advertisement in the March 22 edition of The Islander.

  “What concerns me in reading this [ad], I believe there to be some false information perceived out there concerning the duplex issue primarily generated from the Venician Isles subdivision… so I want to take this opportunity to get out a couple of things that I think need to be corrected,” Harris said.

  “A few weeks ago, Mr. Rayfield and their group came to a meeting here that we had and I thought with the intentions of discussing this issue and then they decided they didn’t want to talk about it, that they were going to try another route,” he said.

  “I think it’s important for concerned citizens to understand what our position has been on that duplex to date, it was permitted by the building department. Our ordinance does not prohibit that being permitted as it’s designed, we don’t restrict size of the house, we don’t restrict number of bedrooms in an ordinance, so it’s a perfectly legal permit.”

  “Following that in our awareness of the concern right shortly after that there was a letter sent to the developer that this fell out of our ordinance and the potential violations of potential use according to our family definition.”

  Currently, the city’s definition of a family limits occupation by unrelated persons to four per unit. According to Harris, Council has already made clear that there is no plans to change this definition of a family.

  “We sent that letter and put the applicant on notice that we had taken aquisition to date that right now he is fully legal to be permitted and our intention is to enforce our ordinance as it is written.”

  “The second issue that I find [in the ad] is in reference to this overlay district item that we’ve talked about and here again it was advertised, put on the planning commission agenda, and talked about, yet I don’t remember anyone in the audience having any comment or discussion on it.”

  “The overlay district is perceived to be a vehicle to create the opportunity for short term rentals in a district that includes Venician Isles, and that is totally opposite from what that district is all about,” Harris said.

  “The overlay district is primarily targeted towards the beach, single family duplex zonings on the beach, which have traditionally and historically been utilized for short term rentals.”

  While the general consensus throughout discussion of an overlay district has been to include areas south of Second Avenue along West Beach, the specific area for such a district has not been determined.

  “I think it’s important to note that council as a group has not defined what the [overlay district] area would be,” Mayor Billy Duke said.

  “Positioning ourselves to be able to enforce our ordinance is the most important thing and not selectively enforce,” Councilman Robert Craft said. “It’s our responsibility to enforce our ordinances and we cannot do that and continue the business that has been going on at West Beach, it’s important to our community and it’s been here forever.

  “This will be put us in position where we can enforce the ordinance in Venician Isles and in all other residential areas and that is the important difference between what we’re doing and what’s being perceived,” Craft said.