Watertown (WTNY) -- Members of the Watertown City Council, who last month voted for a controversial change in zoning law regulating who can live in a single family home, are standing their ground.
The controversy that sprang up over the weekend brought a packed house to last night's city council meeting. Ahead of the meeting, Mayor Jeff Graham asked council members to reconsider the zoning change based on the massive amounts of e-mail City Hall has received on the matter.
Council members considered the issue "over and done with", following last month's vote. That was until last Friday when "The Daily Mail" in the UK posted a story on the new law. That story led to an explosion on social media, most of it against the new zoning law.
Last night Council members Jeff Smith, Joe Butler Jr., and Roxanne Burns defended their position on the change. They argue that it was done to protect homeowners in residential neighborhoods, preventing single family homes in those areas from becoming boarding houses.
In the end, the zoning change stood. Mayor Graham asked the city planning department to research the code and make sure it isn't violating Fair Housing laws.
