SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Residents can voice their opinions on a variety of topics—including proposed single-family occupancy guidelines—during the City Council’s Oct. 4 meeting.

Mayor Joe Bonner set three public hearings for that evening during the Sept. 8 regular council meeting, held at Westminster Village to accommodate the date change associated with the Labor Day holiday.

Proposed occupancy guidelines seek to define clearly what constitutes a single-family unit in an attempt to limit the number of unrelated persons allowed to cohabitate in homes. The issue arose more than a year ago when residents along Artillery Range Road asked the city to consider enacting rental guidelines to protect the integrity and safety of home owners from the actions of absentee landlords allowing tenants to run amok.

The proposed ordinance addresses all single-family residents, however, in order to avoid equal-rights violations against renters.

As written, the ordinance defines a single family in three ways:

*Any number of persons related by “blood, marriage, adoption guardianship or other duly authorized custodian relationship” plus no more than one additional unrelated person.

*Any four unrelated people.

*Any two unrelated people plus any children related to either of them.

 The ordinance also includes a disruptive/disorderly-conduct clause that prohibits any single-family dwelling resident from compromising the “residential nature  of the neighborhood.”

Violators could be punished with fines totaling as much as $500 per offense and jail time of six months or less.

Bonner also set Oct. 4 public hearings for:

*A rezoning request for property located on the north side of Bromley Road, less than 1 mile from the D’Olive intersection. The request seeks to rezone the 62-acre parcel from R-3B to R-1 to allow for the construction of low-density, single-family dwellings.

*An ordinance amending the city’s Table of Permitted Uses to include a designation for ice vending machines.

In other business the council:

*Introduced an ordinance establishing the offense of careless driving.

*Introduced a resolution detailing the city’s proposed operations budget for fiscal year 20.

The next regular meeting of the council will begin with a 5 p.m. work session in the conference room at City Hall on Sept. 20, followed immediately by the regular meeting at 6 p.m. at the Gathering Place in the Prodisee Center.