Update, Sept. 15, 2026: This ordinance was removed from the City Council’s Sept. 15 agenda Tuesday afternoon and was not taken up at the meeting. It is expected to return at a later date; no date has been announced. Read our follow-up.
Opelika’s City Council meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the courtroom of the Municipal Court building at 300 Martin Luther King Blvd., with a 21-item consent agenda, five public hearings and five ordinances up for a reading — including the first reading of the rental licensing law this newspaper wrote about last weekend.
The council’s work session begins at 5:30 p.m. in the same room. Its only listed item is a resolution on an employee clinic services agreement with Symbol Health Solutions, followed by a review of the night’s agenda.
Rental licensing law gets its first reading
Item 5 under ordinances is the amendment to Chapter 14 of the city code — the one titled “Licensing and Taxation of Commercial, Residential and Short-Term Rentals / Commercial Self-Service Storage Rentals.” A first reading means no vote to adopt is scheduled Tuesday.
The ordinance, sponsored by Mayor Eddie Smith and the Purchasing-Revenue Department, adds two new articles to Chapter 14. Article XVI requires a city business license for short-term rentals, with the license number printed in every listing, and requires a 24-hour contact person who lives in Lee County and can reach the property within an hour of a city request. Article XVII covers self-service storage facilities, which would owe a 1.5% city rental and leasing tax on gross receipts, remitted monthly by the 20th.
As Opelika Daily News noted Sunday, the ordinance’s title says short-term rentals, but its text also reaches long-term residential landlords and commercial landlords, each with their own license formula and a $100 minimum. The ordinance sets Feb. 1, 2027, as the date it becomes enforceable.
Package stores: hearing and first reading
The council will hold a public hearing on a zoning text amendment regulating package stores, then take it up as a first reading later in the meeting. The amendment adds definitions to the 1991 zoning ordinance for “ABC Board,” “ABC Store,” “Beer and Wine Store,” “Package Liquor Store” and “Package Store,” and adds those uses to the zoning district matrix in Section 7.3.
The definitions draw a line the current code does not: a “Beer and Wine Store” is a business licensed to sell beer or wine for off-premise consumption, and specifically excludes grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies where those sales are secondary to the main business.
A companion measure — the zoning amendment regulating hemp stores — is up for its second reading, which means it can be adopted Tuesday.
Also on the agenda
- Weed abatement. Four public hearings and four matching resolutions on assessments at 509 1st Ave., 208 Cedar Creek, 1520 Clanton St. and 1408 Magnolia St.
- Senior center lease. First reading of an ordinance leasing part of 1103 Glenn St. to the Lee-Russell Council of Governments for a senior center.
- Personnel policy. First reading of an amendment adding a sexual abuse prevention policy to the city’s personnel manual.
- Medical Arts parking. A resolution approving a right-of-way encroachment agreement with EAHCA for parking on 1st Avenue.
- Street closures. Consent items for the 6th Annual Glow for Epilepsy event Nov. 1, a Foundry UMC movie night Nov. 4, and the Christmas Parade, Snopelika and tree lighting Dec. 4.
- Money and personnel. Consent items include updated employee pay plans, a reclassified pay grade for the OPS director, a new library programming and outreach coordinator job description, annual insurance contracts with Wellpoint and Marsh & McLennan Agency, an emergency repair at the Eastside wastewater treatment plant, and special appropriations for National Night Out on Oct. 6 and the Sportsplex health fair on Oct. 13.
- Appointments. Mark Ennis to the Board of Adjustments & Appeals, with reappointments for Raymond Williams to the same board and Kenneth Burton to the Lee County Youth Development Center board, all for terms expiring Oct. 1, 2030.
Mayor Smith is scheduled to present the city’s August financial summary and monthly building summary, and to recognize the Character Council’s Citizen of Excellent Character. The character trait of the month is dedication.
Two rosters of public comment are on the agenda, each limited to three minutes per speaker. The full agenda and the 165-page agenda packet are posted on the city’s meeting portal.
