PROVO — A group angry about the labyrinth of laws governing Provo housing is going door-to-door seeking signatures to put the hot-button issue on the November ballot.

The group has until July 9 to collect 3,100 signatures, or 10 percent of the votes cast by Provoans in the 2004 governor's race.

ProvoCitizens.net spokesman Roger Brown said the city's zoning laws are unfair to singles, including university students. The text of the group's proposed ballot initiative is simple:

"No zoning ordinance may discriminate based on marital status, family status, real property ownership or educational status."

City leaders denied Friday that city zoning ordinances discriminate against anyone.

"I don't think we discriminate based on family status or marital status," Provo Community Development director Gary McGinn said. "Our definition of family status is based on language people sued on and that went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court found constitutional."

Brown was frustrated five years ago when he owned a Provo home and had three single roommates. City ordinance only allows a maximum of three singles to live together.

"A neighbor reported me," Brown said. "I had to kick out one of my roommates, a foreign student. Luckily, he was thinking of moving anyway, and the city gave us an extra 30 days, which matched up with what he needed."

Brown didn't miss the income (from the roommate's rental) too much until he lost his job.

Brown isn't alone in his frustration with Provo zoning laws. The city was sued by Anderson Development recently after the City Council rejected the developer's request for a zoning change on the city's west side.

And residents and real estate professionals have expressed dismay over the city's rules about apartments and other zoning issues. Some city zones do not allow homeowners to rent out basement or accessory apartments. Other zones allow them, as long as the homeowner also is living in the home.

McGinn said none of those rules discriminates between marrieds and singles.

The city has defined families, for zoning purposes, to include married couples with children, or two or three singles with children or up to three singles living together.

The cap of three singles in a house still irks Brown, though he said he would have given up long ago if he hadn't heard stories of other residents dissatisfied with city zoning.

"Homeowners who are single can only have two roommates even if they have four or five bedrooms with adequate off-street parking," Brown wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

McGinn said the zoning laws are critical in a city with so many students from Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College, soon to be Utah Valley University.