After about 50 years, thousands of community meetings and two attempts to pass new regulations, the city of Mobile officially has new zoning rules.

With the approval of three amendments at the Mobile City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 17, a safe zone to protect Africatown residents from encroaching industry remains the only sticking point between the city and an updated batch of zoning regulations.

Overlay districts, which would create special zoning rules for two neighborhoods in the city, were the biggest sources of debate during a more than two hour discussion of the proposed Unified Development Code Tuesday afternoon for a Mobile City Council committee Tuesday afternoon.

Both Mobile Baykeeper Casi Callaway and Steve Gordon, president of Keep Mobile Growing, said they were pleased – a show of unity amidst what has been at times a controversial issue.

Changes to zoning requirements for above-ground oil storage tanks could either protect a historic Mobile neighborhood, or could negatively prohibit industrial opportunities in and around the port.