The city's zoning laws, they say, favor married people over singles. Their solution: put what they call a "Fair Zoning Initiative" on the November ballot.

A pair of online watchdog organizations - provocitizens.net and forthegoodofthewhole.net - are leading a petition drive to do just that

"Currently the Provo City code discriminates in zoning based on family status, marital status and whether or not you're a homeowner," said petition-drive spokesman Roger Brown.

This hurts "widows/widowers and families who need rental income" as well as singles who need more than two roommates to pay their mortgage.

Brown and his backers have one month - until July 9 - to collect the 3,100 signatures required to force a vote. Their initiative states that "no zoning ordinance may discriminate based on marital status, family status, real property ownership or educational status."

City spokeswoman Raylene Ireland called the move "an important undertaking" and said it's important for citizens to analyze the current rules.

A news release from the citizens' organizations cites zoning rules mandating that singles can only have two roommates - even if they have four or five bedrooms with adequate off-street parking.

Meanwhile, there is no limit on the number of relatives who can live together.

"Having limits on some classes - unmarried or unrelated - is unequal and unfair," the release stated.

But Provo's community development director, Gary McGinn, said zoning ordinances are lawful, and the city's definition of families has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

He clarified that a family can be either a traditional mother, father and their children, or two to three singles (depending on the section of the city) and any children they might have.

"If three guys want to live together, and each of them have three children, that's fine," McGinn said. "Our ordinance clearly states that living together can constitute a family."

The citizens' news release says that, in some neighborhoods, the owner must live in the home and can not lease it to anyone.

Not so, said McGinn, though he clarified that the city offers incentives to owner-occupants because there is such a low number of them in the city, and because they tend to get active in the community.

The citizens' organizations state that the current laws have "increased contention among neighbors, as many make anonymous reports of the zoning violations."

And Brown said it should be up to homeowners, not the city, to "decide who lives in their homes."

sgehrke@sltrib.com