Monday, July 6: Daphne Council to Take a Final Vote on an Apartment Moratorium Now Narrower Than First Proposed — Plus Standardized Trash Carts and Aldi Alcohol Sales

The Daphne City Council's Monday, July 6, 2026 business meeting is led by a final vote on a temporary moratorium on new garden-apartment development, alongside an update to the city's garbage-collection rules and a pair of alcohol licenses for the new Aldi grocery store on Mill Lane. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Daphne City Hall, 1705 Main St.

The second-reading ordinances on the July 6 Daphne City Council agenda.

A final vote on the apartment moratorium

The headline item is Ordinance 2026-20, which would impose a 180-day moratorium on new garden-apartment development while the city finishes a comprehensive rewrite of its Land Use and Development Ordinance. Monday's second reading is the final, decisive vote — the same measure the council took up for discussion in early June.

The ordinance has narrowed since that first look. As introduced, it would have paused new applications for all multi-family housing — apartments, townhomes, condominiums and duplexes alike. The version up for final adoption applies only to "Multi-Family, Garden Apartment" development — projects in the R-7(A) apartment district, the R-4 high-density residential district, or a planned unit development with an apartment component — and expressly does not touch townhomes, duplexes, condominiums or single-family homes.

For any covered project, the city would stop accepting, processing or approving applications for rezoning, pre-zoning, site plan, master plan or planned-development approval. The moratorium carves out projects already in the pipeline: applications already accepted for review or pending before the Planning Commission or council, developments that already have final site-plan approval, and planned unit developments that have already secured their zoning and master development plan. It would take effect immediately on adoption and run 180 days unless the council ends or extends it sooner.

Standardized garbage carts

A second ordinance, 2026-19, would update Daphne's 2017 garbage-collection ordinance — Chapter 12, Article III of the city code — to match the city's move to semi-automated collection. The revised rules define the official garbage receptacle as a City-provided cart in one of two sizes, 64 gallons or 96 gallons, and tighten the placement rules: carts must be at the curb within six feet of the street by midnight before the scheduled pickup, set out no more than 24 hours ahead, kept at least four feet apart, and pulled back within 12 hours after collection. It, too, is up for its second and final reading.

Alcohol licenses for the new Aldi

The council will also take up two retail alcohol licenses for the Aldi store at 30947 Mill Lane — a 050 license for retail beer and a 070 license for retail table wine, both for off-premises (take-home) sale — requested by Aldi Inc Alabama, doing business as Aldi 041. Unlike the ordinances, the licenses appear under the City Clerk's Report and can be granted in a single vote.

The Aldi alcohol-license request under the City Clerk's Report, July 6 agenda.

Two other second-reading ordinances round out the night: 2026-21, which repeals Ordinance 2019-33 and adopts the 2024 International Fire Code with local amendments, and 2026-22, which updates Daphne's adoption of certain technical construction codes. The council is also set to vote on an amendment to an intergovernmental road agreement for the Milton Jones Road project, which its Public Works Committee takes up the same evening.