Daphne to Weigh New Multi-Family Development Moratorium, Nearly Four Years After Last One Expired
The city's Code Enforcement and Ordinance Committee is scheduled to take up a multi-family residential development moratorium ordinance at its 4:30 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall. The discussion comes as several major multi-family projects sit before the Planning Commission and the City Council, less than four years after Daphne's previous apartment moratorium expired.
Daphne is moving to revisit a question it last took up in 2021: whether the city should temporarily stop processing applications for new multi-family residential developments. The Code Enforcement and Ordinance Committee is set to discuss a "Multi-Family Residential Development Moratorium Ordinance" at its 4:30 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall, the committee's June 1 agenda shows.
The agenda lists the item as 4.C under Ordinance Review/Discussion. The committee does not itself adopt ordinances; it forwards recommendations to the full City Council. The agenda does not include the text of the proposed moratorium, its duration, or its scope — whether it would cover all multi-family permitting, only rezoning applications, or only Planned Unit Developments that include multi-family. Those details would surface in the discussion itself or in any draft text the committee circulates afterward.
Agenda excerpt, June 1 Code Enforcement and Ordinance Committee, page 1, item 4 Ordinance Review/Discussion.
Daphne's last multi-family moratorium took effect Sept. 7, 2021, when the City Council voted 5-2 to impose a six-month pause on rezoning applications for apartments, mid-rise condominiums, townhomes, and PUDs that include multi-family residences, according to contemporaneous coverage by Gulf Coast Media. That moratorium did not affect property already zoned for multi-family use. It was extended for a second six-month period in early 2022, with Councilman Ron Scott — who had voted against the original measure — making the motion to extend it. The city used the window to develop its 20-year comprehensive plan, Envision Daphne 2042, which the Planning Commission adopted on March 28, 2024 (Resolution 2024-01), and the City Council ratified on May 6, 2024 (Resolution 2024-16), according to the city.
The committee meets at a moment of busy multi-family activity. The Retreat at Daphne (file SP26-04), the 17.96-acre apartment component of the larger 134.31-acre Rowan Oak Planned Unit Development — a Daphne-based 68 Ventures project formerly proposed as The Sanctuary — has appeared on Planning Commission agendas across multiple meetings since March, repeatedly tabled by the applicant. The Retreat sits northwest of County Road 13 and Milton Jones Road Extension; East Wind LLC and Berkley Hall Construction LLC are listed as the apartment-piece developers on the agendas. The Retreat is listed on the May 28 Planning Commission agenda as Old Business, Item 5.A.
May 28 Daphne Planning Commission agenda, page 1, showing The Retreat at Daphne (Old Business, Item 5.A) and Italian Village of Daphne (Item 5.B).
Two other major PUDs reached the City Council on May 18. Italian Village of Daphne (file SP26-06), a 34.55-acre PUD at Alabama 181 and County Road 64, came up for a public hearing on a PUD narrative modification, Ordinance 2026-13, that would raise the apartment lot's maximum density from 10 units per acre to 15 and its building-height limit from three stories to four. Italian Village is also listed on the May 28 Planning Commission agenda for a site plan review (Item 5.B). East Fish River II (file SDPF26-01) was also before the council that night, with a public hearing and a first-reading Ordinance 2026-12 to amend its PUD narrative. The May 28 Planning Commission agenda lists the East Fish River master site as 510 acres across three lots, 500 feet northeast of County Road 64 and Dixon Lane, with a related subdivision filing for 103 acres divided into 94 lots.
May 18 Daphne City Council agenda, page 4, showing first-read Ordinances 2026-12 (East Fish River, Item 13.A) and 2026-13 (Italian Village, Item 13.B).
Daphne is not the only Baldwin County government weighing a growth-pause measure this spring. The Baldwin County Commission's May 5 agenda included Resolution 2026-090, requesting an Alabama attorney general's opinion on the use of temporary moratoriums in unincorporated Baldwin County territory under Alabama Code Section 45-2-142.01. Neighboring Fairhope adopted a 12-month construction moratorium covering subdivisions and multi-occupancy projects in the unincorporated portion of its five-mile planning jurisdiction in December 2021, according to Lagniappe Mobile; that moratorium has since expired.
May 5 Baldwin County Commission agenda, page 3, item CA4 — Resolution 2026-090 requesting an attorney general's opinion on temporary moratoriums in unincorporated Baldwin County under Alabama Code §45-2-142.01.
The committee will also discuss fire code adoption (item 4.A), a solid waste ordinance review (item 4.B), and a continuation of a business license discussion that began at the committee's May 4 meeting (item 4.D), the agenda shows. The agenda does not specify which edition of the International Fire Code the city would adopt or what changes the solid waste or business license discussions would propose.
The committee's next meeting after June 1 is scheduled for July 6.