A Pell City councilman has called for changing how conditional property use requests are approved.

Donnie Guinn asked Monday that Mayor Bill Hereford schedule discussions at next month’s council meetings about giving the panel authority to approve all conditional zoning requests.  The city’s zoning and planning board currently makes such decisions.

Guinn said an article published last Sunday in The Daily Home about an ongoing debate regarding how the property at 202 Johnson Drive is used prompted the request.   Earlier this year, the zoning and planning board granted conditional use of the property as a family care home to Recovery Journey, which used the property as a group home for recovering drug offenders.

Recovery Journey stopped using the property late last month, as directed by a court order, and Grace Harbor Inc., a corporation headed by the property’s owner, Curtis Capps, took control of the home.

Guinn said that with the departure of Recovery Journey, the property should revert back to strictly residential use, adding that future conditional use decisions should be made by elected officials rather than appointed board members.  

Capps said last week that the conditional use provision applies to a purpose, regardless of what organization uses the property.