ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- The Robertsdale City Council voted to deny a request at its regular council meeting Monday to rezone property in the Cardinal Hills subdivision.

A total of six applications representing 25 lots in Phase IV of the subdivision, which is located off of U.S. Highway 90 in Robertsdale, were presented for rezoning from R1-A, restricted residential, to RMH, which would allow manufactured/mobile homes on the lots.

The request was presented before the city's Planning Commission, which then brought the request before the City Council with a recommendation to deny the request.

During a public hearing at Monday's council meeting, Mayor Charles Murphy said one of the main applicants, Community Bank of Ellisville, Miss., which owns 11 of the lots and initiated the rezoning request, had withdrawn its request, leaving a total of 14 lots in the rezoning request.

The agenda packet for Monday's meeting also included a letter from adjacent property owner Meredith C. Spraggins, expressing her opposition to the request.

"I am adamantly opposed to allowing such a zoning change to occur," Spraggins stated in her letter, dated Jan. 16. "When I purchased my residence ... it was marketed to me with the fact that Phase IV of Cardinal Hills was for single-family residences constructed on site, excluding manufactured/mobile homes. I would have never purchased this residence if I had known there was a possibility of a zoning change to accommodate the intermingling of manufactured homes with site-built homes."

Her letter goes on to state that Phases I-III of the subdivision were developed for the purpose of allowing manufactured or mobile homes on individually owned lots.

Phases I-III currently includes 12 manufactured or mobile home properties either for sale by owner or realty companies; nine vacant manufactured/mobile home properties for sale; two vacant manufactured/mobile home properties for rent and 14 vacant lots available for sale.

There have been six permanent residences built on the 30-plus lots in Phase IV of the subdivision, according to the letter. The rest are vacant.

Spraggins also spoke during Monday's public hearing, saying she was still opposed to the rezoning request.

Murphy said, since the main application for rezoning had been withdrawn, no ordinance had been prepared for approval at Monday's meeting. The council could either vote to proceed with the drafting of a new ordinance, which would be presented at a future meeting, or could vote to deny the request, in which case no further action would be necessary.

Council member Joe Kitchens proposed to deny the request, which was approved by unanimous vote of the council with all members present at Monday's meeting.

In other business Monday, the council:

• Voted to allow the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce the use of the Baldwin County Coliseum for the Chamber's annual Prayer Breakfast which is scheduled for May 3.

• Took no action on a request from the Central Baldwin Baseball League to add base-pad spikes at a spacing of 65 feet on two fields at Garrett Park so the fields could be used for USSSA, 9-year-old tournaments. Base-pad spikes are currently in place at 60-foot and 70-foot spacing.

• Approved a request for Robertsdale Dental Care for the use of Baldwin Park for parking the first Friday in May, when the business provides free dental service to qualified applicants.

• Approved a request to surplus vehicles for the city's police and utilities departments.

• Approved a restaurant retail liquor license for Ivey's Fine Dining in Robertsdale.

• Approved the volunteer firefighters roster for the purpose of workers compensation.

• Voted to advertise for bids for the city's debris removal contract which has to be in place for hurricane season.

• Voted to advertise for bids on the city's $90,000 grant to replace street lights with LED lighting.