Bellingham's City Council is stuck between a rock and a hard place as it tries to figure out how to define what kinds of people can live in single-family houses.

The city's current zoning code calls for no more than three unrelated people to be living in a house in an area zoned for single-family homes.

On one side you have people who say such a rule is discriminatory against today's modern, blended families. In a world where unrelated people cohabitate, sometimes with children from several marriages, they say such a law is antiquated and unfair.

On the other side you have people who say that not having a rule could lead to every single-family home becoming a boarding house, particularly for a group of college students. They argue that allowing every home to basically become apartments undermines city neighborhoods and makes single-family zoning laws meaningless.

In response to the debate, the council is looking at several options, including a proposal by councilman Jack Weiss to increase the "three-unrelated" rule to one that allows no more than four unrelated residents sharing a home.

Our editorial board tends to side with the group of people who believe that such laws are discriminatory. While we understand the desire of some families to protect what they love about their neighborhoods, we don't believe the council should be getting involved in defining what qualifies as a family in these times. Surely the four-unrelated proposal does little better than the three-unrelated law does.

In the meantime, the city faces an unreasonable cost if it tries to enforce such rules. Do we really want city officials or police officers checking the relationships of people living in a home. How do they go about doing that? Do they knock on doors and demand to see identification of everyone living in a home? If they do, how do they know who is really related or not? Don't many of our families have spouses and children with different last names?

We encourage the City Council to consider striking these definitions from the city codes. If there is a problem in neighborhoods from one home with noise, litter, parking or some other nuisance, use nuisance laws to prohibit or punish the behavior. But don't punish people for the way they choose to cohabitate.

>>>Bellingham City Council committee of the whole meeting

2 p.m. Monday Aug. 4 in the council chambers at Bellingham City Hall, 210 Lottie St.