DAPHNE, Ala.—The Daphne Planning Commission gave an unfavorable recommendation to the Lake Forest Apartments zoning amendment at Thursday’s meeting.

The commission voted 5-1 to send the zoning proposal to the council. Mayor Fred Small, Dan Gibson, Joe Lemoine, Larry Chason and Fire Chief Bo White voted in favor of the zoning change. Commissioner Cathy Barnette voted against it.

Barnette did not have reservations about the zoning change, but she said she wanted to discuss some concerns she noticed with the property.

“The issue is still not addressed whether or not there is a problem with the right-of-way,” she said.

Bill Dobbins, president of The Dobbins Group LLC and owner of the property, wants to change the zoning of the apartments from B-1, Local Business, and R-3, High Density Multi-Family, to R-4, High Density Multi-Family.

“The current developer has done some good things with (the property),” said David Diehl, engineer from Engineering Development Services. “It looks nice. He just wants to match up the zoning for its uses. We’re obviously an R-4 use. We’re zoned improperly.”

The size of the property in question is more than six acres, and there are 14 units per acre, according to Diehl.

The Dobbins Group LLC, a Birmingham real-estate investment firm, purchased Lake Forest Apartments on Sept. 3, and the property is set to undergo around a $1 million renovation in the coming months.

“We recently purchased this property,” Dobbins said. “This property was in very bad shape. We want to clean up both the zoning and current profile of the property.”

Chason said he felt the zoning change was a simple procedure and the commission didn’t need to get into the details.

“To me it’s just a matter of he wants to change the zone to R-4, which matches with the use of the property. That is step one,” Chason said.

The commission approved sending the zoning amendment to the council, but members did so without a favorable recommendation. Six affirmative votes are required to have a favorable recommendation on zoning changes, and the matter received five.