Commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting unanimously agreed to initiate a code revision that would change how many unrelated people could live in single-family homes in certain neighborhoods of the city.

The city agreed to send the proposed rule change to the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission for a full hearing. The item then would have to come back to the City Commission for final approval.

City commissioners deleted a portion of the proposal that would have changed the rules for duplex properties. The current proposal would allow no more than three unrelated adults to live in a single-family home, if they are located in various zoning districts.

That’s consistent with the regulations governing most single-family homes in the city. But there are a handful of zoning categories where single-family homes can house up to four unrelated adults. The zoning categories include the Planned Unit Development, Planned Residential Development, Planned Industrial Development, Planned Office Development, and Planned Commercial Development zoning categories in the city.

When the proposed rule changes included duplex properties, staff members estimated about 3,000 homes could be affected by the rule change. With the duplex properties no longer included in the proposed change, it wasn’t clear Tuesday how many properties may be affected.