Millbrook council to consider temporary business moratorium at May 12 meeting

Millbrook leaders were set to take up Ordinance 26-03 at the May 12 council meeting, putting a temporary moratorium on specific businesses in the city’s corporate limits and police jurisdiction on first reading. That meant the proposal was only beginning the formal process, but it was already signaling possible limits on who could open or expand in Millbrook while the council weighed the measure.

The agenda showed the meeting would follow the city’s regular sequence, with invocation, the pledge of allegiance, call to order, roll call, approval of the agenda and reading of the April 28 minutes. The council meets in the courtroom of the Millbrook Police and Municipal Court Building at 3900 Grandview Road, and the second-Tuesday meeting begins at 10 a.m.

The agenda excerpt did not spell out every business category covered by the moratorium, but the title made clear that the pause would apply to selected businesses in both the city limits and the police jurisdiction. That matters because Millbrook’s planning and building offices have direct control over the paperwork that follows new development. The city says its Planning and Zoning Administrator reviews site plans and plats for compliance with the zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and other city ordinances, while the Building Department handles permitting and inspections for residential and commercial construction throughout the city and its police jurisdiction.

The discussion comes as Millbrook continues to grow. The U.S. Census Bureau listed the city’s population at 16,564 in the 2020 Census and estimated 17,392 residents as of July 1, 2024, a 5.4% increase from the April 1, 2020 base. In a city expanding that quickly, a moratorium can reshape the timing of investment, the pace of permits and the prospects for property owners waiting on a project to move ahead.

Millbrook has used that tool before. In May 2025, the council unanimously approved a temporary moratorium on convenience stores, vape shops, gas stations and package stores through May 9, 2026. Council member Al Kelley had pointed to Prattville and Pike Road as examples he examined before supporting that earlier action, which was tied in part to a significant increase in those kinds of businesses.

The May 12 agenda did not explain the reason for the new proposal, so the public had to watch the meeting and any later ordinance text to see what problem the council was trying to address. Even so, the appearance of Ordinance 26-03 showed that land use, business regulation and growth pressure remained active issues in Millbrook as the city continued to expand across Autauga County and into its police jurisdiction.