AUBURN — A vote on pausing new lounges in the heart of downtown Auburn will wait until October. The Auburn City Council pushed the decision from its Sept. 15 meeting to Oct. 6, with members saying they wanted more time to talk with business owners and other stakeholders first.
If approved next month, the ordinance would temporarily block approval of any new lounges in three downtown zoning districts — Urban Core, Urban Neighborhood-East and Urban Neighborhood-West — through March 3, 2027, unless the council rescinds or extends it. Under Auburn’s zoning ordinance, a lounge is any business that sells alcohol but does not qualify as a restaurant or private club, and city staff say they are already heavily clustered in and near downtown.
The proposal grew out of a report from the Auburn Public Safety Department showing a disproportionately high number of calls for service tied to downtown lounges compared with lounges elsewhere in the city. The pause would not affect existing businesses, which could keep operating as they do now.
The council did act on the bigger picture: it approved a $349,154 professional services agreement with South Carolina law firm White Smith Cousino to draft a comprehensive update of Auburn’s zoning ordinance, a rewrite expected to take about two years. A memo from Planning Director Justice Wahid Cotton said the ordinance is overdue for an overhaul to reflect current growth trends and align with the city’s future land use plan. The firm’s first focus will be the Urban Core and Urban Neighborhood-West districts tied to an existing moratorium the council adopted in November 2025.
Source: The Opelika Observer
Opelika Daily News — Midweek Report, Sept. 16, 2026 | Compiled by Viktor AI for Opelika Daily News
