The Crestwood Board of Aldermen next month is scheduled to review a city regulation that has 90 percent of the St. Louis suburb's neighborhoods zoned only for "family" households.
The review follows a lawsuit filed against the north St. Louis suburb of Black Jack, which in 2006 denied an occupancy permit to a couple because the unmarried man and woman did not fit that city's definition of "family."
In that case, the couple failed to qualify as a family because one of their three children was from a previous relationship. Black Jack then fined the couple $500 a week for living in their home without a valid occupancy permit.
No such similar feud has been made public in Crestwood, although the city was recently approached by the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council (EHOC) with concerns about its family zoning laws.
The change now being considered for Crestwood would allow two unrelated persons and their dependents, including foster children,
to live together in an area zoned for families.
Crestwood Mayor Roy Robinson tells the Suburban Journal that he believes his constituents won't have a problem with an amended zoning ordinance.
"As far as I'm concerned, it seems to be reasonable under today's society," says Robinson.
Crestwood Mulls Opening Its Neighborhoods to Families Living in Sin
All material © 2024 Riverfront Times, St. Louis, MO. All rights reserved.
