DAPHNE, Ala.— The Daphne Planning Commission voted to give the City Council an unfavorable recommendation to rezone property on the southwest corner of Lawson Road and County Road 13.

The owner requested the property be re-zoned from B-1, local business, to B-2, general business, and the commission voted 7-1 in favor of giving the unfavorable recommendation.

Commissioners Don Terry, Cathy Barnette, Joe Lemoine, Ed Kirby, Mayor Fred Small, Dan Gibson and Larry Chason voted in favor of the motion made by Barnette.

Commissioner Fire Chief Bo White voted against giving the unfavorable recommendation.

“I have a problem zoning it B-2 and if something happens to this project it opens up to a whole lot of options (for what could be built there),” Kirby said.

Nightclubs, automobile sales and service centers, laundry and dry cleaning centers, bars, taverns and cocktail lounges are examples of uses allowed under B-2 and B-1 zones, Daphne’s Development Director Adrienne Jones said.

The property owner hopes to build a bowling alley at the location, and the topic has been discussed in planning commission meetings and city council meetings since September.

Susan Edmond, a Daphne resident who said she lives less than 500 feet from the property in question, said she is definitely against having a bowling alley built there.

“It’s too residential,” she said of the surrounding area. “If any of you were thinking of voting for this, please stand in our backyard and see if you want this in your backyard.”

Willie Robison, a Daphne resident, said he was in favor of the bowling alley being built there.

“There are things much worse under a B-2 zone that can be put there,” he said, mentioning nightclubs and bars as examples. “It’s good, clean family entertainment … It will bring in revenue for the city, and it will create jobs.”

The owner and engineer proposed to the commission a change in the table of uses under a B-1 classification to allow bowling alleys as a use under planning commission approval, and the public hearing for that request will be held during the Dec. 6 city council meeting at City Hall.

“Both proposals were put on the agenda and both were proposed to the planning commission at the same time, and they withdrew the request to re-zone at the Sept. 23 meeting,” Jones said.

The commission at its Sept. 23 meeting sent the council an unfavorable recommendation to change the table of uses because there were not enough present members to give a favorable recommendation. A favorable recommendation requires six affirmative votes.

The commission decided to re-consider the previous action and voted 7-1 on Thursday to give a favorable recommendation for the table of use change.

Barnette, White, Lemoine, Small, Gibson, Chason and Terry voted in favor of the re-consider motion, while Kirby voted against it.

The council debated the issue at the Oct. 11 council meeting, and some council members felt the method of trying to get the bowling alley approved gave the planning commission too much authority.

 “There are multiple instances in our ordinance that allows planning commission site-plan authority,” Chason said Thursday in response to concerns from the council. “(Site plan approval) is an authority that the state of Alabama gives the planning commission.”

By altering the table of permitted uses and placing bowling alleys under the B-1 district instead of forcing the developer to re-zone the property B-2, it would allow the developer to need only site plan approval from the planning commission and not a re-zoning approval from the commission and council.