GULF SHORES, Ala. — Gulf Shores is moving closer towards amending the city’s zoning ordinance to create a single-family and duplex tourist rental overlay district, but there are still obstacles in the way.

For close to a year now the City Council has been working with staff to formulate the amendment with the goal of recognizing the existence of specific areas that have been historically used as short-term single-family and duplex rentals. The area being considered is West Beach Boulevard and Fort Morgan Road west of The Peninsula.

Once the specific area is designated, it will make enforcement of short-term rentals outside of the district easier for the city.

The boundaries of the district currently being proposed was configured by the city staff who looked at some local rental guides and compared those to the revenue department’s records for people who have existing short-term business licenses for single-family duplex houses.

“What we’ve determined is that there are 12 business licenses for short-term rentals outside of the proposed district boundaries,” Planning and Zoning director Andy Bauer told City Council members at a recent committee of the whole meeting. “Therefore, staff concluded that the majority of short-term rentals, about 500, occur within this district so that is how we determined where the district should be.”

According to Bauer, City Attorney Donald Stewart has proposed that a new definition of “family” be added to the amendment.

“As many of you are well aware, our definition of family is old, and our city attorney has researched family definitions from various cities around the country and proposed this one because it addresses the non-traditional types of families which are currently found in today’s society,” Bauer said.

Issues such as noise and parking will be addressed, as they always have, should the proposed district be adopted. No new guidelines have been drafted as it relates to those issues.

At the Aug. 25 Planning Commission meeting, the commission heard the proposed zoning amendment and voted 7-0 to recommend approval, but under three conditions: First, to keep the current definition of family as written in the zoning ordinance; second, to grandfather in current short-term rentals outside the proposed area provided they have a current business license and are current on all fees and taxes; and third, to give non-licensed individuals who rent property until Dec. 31, 2009 to obtain a license.

Staff has recommended that the City Council approve the proposed amendment by removing two of the conditions recommended by the Planning Commission — those being grandfathering in currently licensed short-term rental properties and giving unlicensed property owners until the end of the year to obtain a license.

“There are a couple of things we want to accomplish by passing this ordinance,” said Mayor Robert Craft. “One, we want to allow by law, what we have been allowing all of these years, and the ability to enforce it. This amendment does that. Secondly, I wanted us to consider some type of grandfathering issue to protect the folks who did what we told them they could do, as long as they have a business license and are current on their taxes, they should be grandfathered in in perpetuity. Even those outside the proposed area, if they have done what they were supposed to do, they should be grandfathered in as well.”

Craft said that where he differs from the proposal is where the city goes from here.

“If we continue to allow what we have allowed so far, we have the probability to create more density in that area than we can support. The larger duplexes that we have currently need to stay there, but for future undeveloped property I think we need to do some type of capacity type study and understand what would happen to that area if we allowed the construction to continue forward as it has been and the rentals to continue forward as they have in the past,” Craft said.

Craft said he supports a moratorium on rentals until a capacity study is done as it relates to new construction and development, or anyone wanting to convert their single family home into rental property.