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The Daily OrangeLandlords, residents debate off-campus parking
Amendment aims to keep families in neighborhood, limit rentals
By Eddie Jacovino
Posted: 9/27/07, 11:36 PM EST Section: News
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The amendment would require new rental properties in the area east of campus to have one parking space for each bedroom, but sets a city-wide limit of no more than three spaces for a single-family house.
It is currently before the Common Council's finance, taxation and assessment committee, and is set to go to vote Oct. 9.
The consequence of the proposal is that it lowers the number of people who can live in a house in the university area. It only applies to property changing from owner-occupied to rented units, but some veteran landlords could be affected if they do not have the proper paperwork filed.
Residents generally spoke in favor of the measure, saying they need to protect their neighborhood from turning over completely to landlords. Landlords opposed to the restrictions argued for a free housing market.
Student Association President Ryan Kelly supported limiting the number of cars in the area, but said he disagrees with the clause that forces university-area landlords to provide an equal number of parking spaces as bedrooms.
"There could have been a limit of the cars without counting the bedrooms," Kelly said, "because that's limiting the number of students, and that's not what we're talking about."
Kelly was the only student to speak at the hearing. Almost all of the 60 in the audience were residents of the east neighborhood or local landlords.
City Zoning Administrator Charles Ladd said the proposal would not affect rented homes that are sold from one landlord to another, unless the new owner plans to make changes to the home, such as adding a bedroom.
Instead, the proposal aims to keep absentee landlords from buying homes that are currently owner-occupied. "This is not to change anything," Ladd said in an interview after the meeting. "It's to offer a sense of stability."
Ladd said of the roughly 2,000 units in the neighborhood, 1,050 will be affected because they are owner-occupied (and could potentially be sold to a landlord).
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