Daphne Council to Discuss 180-Day Freeze on New Multi-Family Development Applications
Draft Ordinance 2026-20, on the June 8 city council agenda for discussion, would halt new apartment, townhome, condominium, and duplex applications for six months while Daphne rewrites its land use rules. Projects already in the pipeline would be exempt.
The Daphne City Council is scheduled Monday, June 8, to take up a proposed six-month moratorium on new multi-family residential development applications while the city reworks its zoning code.
Draft Ordinance 2026-20, page 1, from the June 8 meeting packet.
Draft Ordinance 2026-20, page 2.
The item, listed as a presentation and discussion under agenda item 2.A, will not be voted on Monday. Council members are expected to use the meeting to walk through the draft ordinance before taking any formal action.
Draft Ordinance 2026-20, included in the meeting packet, frames the freeze as a stopgap tied to a broader rewrite already underway. The city is in the middle of a comprehensive overhaul of its Land Use and Development Ordinance — known locally as the LUDO — covering zoning classifications, density and development standards, infrastructure and stormwater impacts, and the compatibility of land uses. The ordinance's findings warn that vetting new apartment proposals under rules the city expects to substantially rewrite "could result in projects being reviewed under standards that are likely to be materially revised in the near future."
Under the draft, the city would stop accepting, processing, or approving applications for rezoning, pre-zoning, site plan approval, master plan approval, planned development approval, or any other development approval tied to new multi-family projects inside Daphne's corporate limits. The ordinance defines multi-family residential development broadly: apartments, townhomes, condominiums, duplexes, and any similar project with more than one dwelling unit on a single lot or unified site.
The pause would carry three exemptions. Applications the city has already deemed complete before the ordinance takes effect, applications already pending before the Planning Commission or City Council, and projects with final site plan approval in hand would all be allowed to move forward.
If adopted, the moratorium would take effect immediately upon adoption and publication and would run for 180 days, unless the council acts sooner to end or extend it.
Daphne has used the tool before. In September 2021, the council voted 5-2 to impose a six-month moratorium on multi-family rezoning requests, and in March 2022 it voted unanimously to extend that pause for another six months to give the city time to finish a long-range growth plan, according to Gulf Coast Media.