Occupancy Limits : Part of a Comprehensive Plan
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CLOSING THE GAP: NEW PARTNERSHIPS FOR GREAT NEAR-CAMPUS NEIGHBOURHOODS IN LONDON, ONTARIO
TownGown World Article
By John M. Fleming – Manager of Implementation Planning, City of London, Ontario
May, 2008 CAN
The City of London has been a leader in addressing many Town and Gown issues in Ontario and Canada. London is blessed with the University of Western Ontario and a number of affiliated colleges as well as Fanshawe College – collectively these institutions account for a student body of approximately 45,000 within a municipality with a total population of 350,000. In response to student housing issues which have been clearly resident in London for decades, the City has, in the past, established Floor Area Ratio regulations that are implemented on a sliding scale based on lot size, gross floor area caps and innovative by-law enforcement techniques. London was the first municipality to successfully incorporate maximum bedroom regulations for residential units. The City, University and Colleges have also developed an innovative Housing Mediation Service which still stands as a cutting edge model in Ontario for effective communication and facilitation of Town and Gown issues.
Meanwhile, student housing issues persist. Following London’s hosting of the 2007 Town and Gown Symposium, the City has developed a new comprehensive draft strategy for addressing Town and Gown issues. The draft strategy, entitled “Closing the Gap: New Partnerships for Great Neighbourhoods Surrounding Our University and Colleges”, contains 10 strategic initiatives that are intended to help near-campus neighbourhoods move towards a collective vision that has been articulated through the consultation process.
John Fleming, Manager of Implementation Planning for the City of London Planning Division, who led the process and wrote the document, describes the approach that London has taken in formulating this most recent strategy and how it differs from the approach taken previously. He outlines the 10 strategic directions and provides insight on their underlying intent. GO TO ARTICLE |
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HMO Limits : The Student's View |
"The NUS wants to see balanced communities. We're not necessarily convinced it's best for students to make up 75% of the population of any road, but legislating for this is unfair, impractical, not a long-term solution."
NUS President Gemma Tumelty (UK)
NUS Scotland values the importance of a housing mix within local
communities, and furthermore understands and acknowledges the
issues that an over-concentration of any housing type can
cause, but firmly believes that these issues can be tackled with
positive measures to empower tenants and home owners rather
than regressive, blunt quotas.
James Alexander President NUS Scotland
"Imposing unreasonable restrictions will result in fewer affordable
rental units available and new landlord fees and inspection costs will be
downloaded onto student renters,"
Jen Hassum, Chairperson of the Canadian
Federation of Students - Ontario. Canada
Driving students away from local colleges and universities because they cannot afford housing is hardly a viable way of achieving the mission of sustaining the community by attracting the same young professionals back to the neighborhood after graduation.
Indiana Daily Student Newspaper Advisory Board
USA |
Proper Student Population Planning Essential
Dr. Darren Smith Working Paper UK
Excerpt
The growing consensus to integrate student populations into established residential communities in sensitive ways more fully complements the leading urban policy aspirations for balanced and sustainable communities, and is vital for encouraging established residents to remain in situ. This is important given the general depopulation of children and families from central and inner areas of towns and cities (Holt and Bowlby, 2007) and the impacts on demands for local services (e.g. nurseries, schools); an issue which is noted as a leading-edge societal concern by eminent planner Peter Hall (2007).
By contrast, this paper has argued that the unregulated and unchecked rapid in-migration of student populations into established residential communities, tied to the proliferation of HMO and the loss of family homes, can contradict the idealistic visions of social mixing, conviviality and community cohesion within diverse and inclusive population structures; although, arguably, there may be positive seasonal, spin-offs for a minority of social groups (i.e. higher demands for public transport, doctors, dentists, and retail and leisure services during term-time). ( Go to Working Paper)
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Addressing Absentee Landlords |
Rental Housing Permits, Inspections and Persons-in-Charge
TownGown World Article
By: Tom Kirtz
Borough of State College
April, 2008 USA
In 1968, State College Borough joined with three neighboring municipalities to establish a rental housing inspection and permitting program. The municipalities adopted the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) Basic Housing Code and initiated an inspection/permitting program. The purpose of the program was to protect the health, safety and welfare of tenants and provide for the maintenance of rental properties. Owner-occupied homes were excluded from the Housing Code requirements. Permits were required in order to identify the location of rental property and track the owners. A permit fee was established to support the program.
Over the next couple of decades, the program remained basically the same. However, one of the continuing problems in obtaining compliance with the Code was trying to contact and get the cooperation absentee rental property owners. To address this issue, the Code was amended in 1991 to require a local person-in-charge who must live within 25 miles of the Borough. Property owners may act as their own person-in-charge if they live within the 25 mile limit.
The person-in-charge requirement has been helpful in many cases but has not completely resolved the absentee landlord issue. This is particularly evident when significant repairs are needed in a rental unit and the absentee owner does not respond to either the person-in-charge's request for funds for the repairs nor the inspector's order to make the repairs. In these cases, a District Justice citation is filed against the rental property owner and this normally prods the owner to respond.
Additional information about this program is available by contacting Tom Kurtz at tkurtz@statecollegepa.us.The current ordinance is available under Borough Codes on the Borough's website at www.statecollegepa.us <http://www.statecollegepa.us/> . |
Rental Residential Housing: Licensing and Occupancy Standards
TownGown World Article
By: Jerry Conlin Director, Municipal Law Enforcement and Licensing Services
City of Oshawa, Ontario
April, 2008 CAN
In the Province of Ontario land use is regulated by the Planning Act through the enactment of Zoning By-laws. The development of land for commercial, institutional, industrial, residential and other land uses is guided and controlled by Zoning By-laws. Other types of municipal by-laws complement zoning by-laws more specifically by regulating the condition of land and activities related to land such as, property standards by-laws, noise by-laws and parking by-laws.
Municipal licensing by-laws are also significant tools for regulating business activities including activities on land. The process of applying for, obtaining and holding a licence for a fixed term requires a licensee to demonstrate compliance on a continuing basis. Historically, however, a regulation under Ontario’s Municipal Act prevented municipalities from enacting licensing by-laws that regulated residential rental accommodation. This has changed with amendments to the Municipal Act effected January 1, 2007 by Bill 130, the Municipal Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006.
In 2008, the City of Oshawa became the first Ontario Municipality to pass a Licensing By-law to regulate the business activity of Rental Residential Housing.
A key feature of the licensing by-law is that the rental dwelling must first comply with the zoning of the property, property standards regulations, parking regulations, the Ontario Fire Code, and the Ontario Building Code before an application will be approved. In addition, the owner must also obtain clearance from the Electrical Safety Authority. A unique feature of the Licensing schedule for rental housing is that a rental dwelling has a restriction on the maximum number of bedrooms that may be rented in dwellings and shared accommodations at four. (A minor amendment was introduced by council to permit six bedrooms on certain streets for two to three years. This was intended to address houses that already had more than four bedrooms rented, and to provide time to bring the properties into compliance with the new standards while at the same time ensuring minimum safety standards are complied with.) (Go to Article) |
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“Contraversations"
Constructing Conflicts. Lessons from a Town-Gown Controversy |
CONTRAVERSATION:
By Maria Aggestam and James Keenan.
Business and Society, Vol. 46 (4) pp429-456.
May, 2008 Sweden
Contraversations are based on controversial and antagonistic discourse that refers to differences among group of society and business. We defined “contraversation” as dialectical and dialogical conversation particularly and publicly directed against one faction, which create antagonisms and thwart collaboration.
Contraversation focuses on inter- group or interfactional conflict that obstructs collaboration by fostering conflict, confrontation and intense feelings of participants through the agency of language. In facing problematic concerns collective identities are publicly visible through language which translate them into disintegrating rather than integrating inter-societal performance.(go to glossary)
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Editorial: Occupancy Limits Needed to Preserve Intergenerational Housing
By: Rob Payne CAN
May,2008
The development of well planned occupancy limits programs for HMO’s addresses the barriers to regeneration of balanced communities by maintaining “intergenerational “housing stock. Housing that is subjected to “student stuffing” by landlords seeking to maximize rental income has a number of negative repercussions for both students and permanent residents.
The lure of “cheap rent” in these houses comes in many cases at the expense of safe living. The conversion of common living areas to additional bedrooms makes any “re-conversion” costs by any prospective permanent residents prohibitive. Near campus neighbourhood tax assessments increases are inflated, as the community housing values are based on the values for rental properties that are only achieved by maximizing the number of occupants. Communities experience severe parking issues, as many rental properties occupants have far more cars than would be normal for non rental residential housing.
There is a need to welcome students to our near campus communities, as well as a need to focus on how to retain these students in our neighbourhoods after graduation. The development of occupancy limit programs maintains the “intergenerational “ nature of our residential housing stock . These programs provide safe, uncrowded rental housing for students in their undergraduate years, and also provide potential future housing for these students and others who may be interested to convert rental housing back to a permanent residential housing use. |
Editor’s note: Thanks to all the contributors who took the time to write about their community programs. It was a disappointment that all of the student organizations contacted did not have the time to provide an article outlining their viewpoints. It was also interesting that limiting HMO occupancy is something of a North American phenomenon.
I was struck by the idea that efforts to balance near campus communities, while generally unpopular with student organizations, can in fact make a strong positive contribution to a communities future student retention .
Comments are encouraged by contacted me at editor@towngownworld.com
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All Party Parliamentary Group formed to address Balanced Communities
Dr. Darren Smith Working Paper UK
(Excerpt)The political currency of studentification, and the penetration of the issue into national parliament and local government arenas are also illustrated by the creation of two new groups, respectively.
First, an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Balanced and Sustainable Communities (with 20 qualifying members) has been established in national parliament, and held its initial meeting on 27 June 2007. This APPG is principally ‘concerned about the impact of an imbalance between student and local residents’ housing’ (The UK Parliament, 2007). According to its constitution, the main purpose of this group is to support:
‘changes in planning law to possibly control the amount of student housing in particular streets and thus ensure that our communities are balanced; a requirement to license all private rented accommodation, including student housing; adequate provision for family housing in all communities’ (The UK Parliament, 2007).( Go to working paper)
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New Zoning Regulation limiting Rental Occupancy Approved
April 2008
Boston, USA
Editors Comment : Councilor Ross wrote an article for TownGown World in Jan, 2008 entitled "Preventing Neighborhoods from becoming Shadow Campuses" In this article he outlines a new zoning regulation which limits to four the number of undergraduate college students who can live together. The new zoning regulation was approved unanimously in March, 2008 by the Boston Zoning Commission. Councilor Ross recently responded to student criticism to the new bylaw as follows;
"Students should think ahead a year or two and decide whether they wish to remain in Boston like so many graduates before them. Consider that Massachusetts is the only state in America to lose population for two years in a row. Many graduates are being forced to choose to settle in better priced cities like Atlanta, Georgia despite wanting to remain here. Capping student apartments to four will have the positive effect of returning safe and strong neighborhoods like the Fenway, Mission Hill and Brighton to the marketplace." |
"Excerpt " Licensing rentals
Trends and breaking news in the USA
Bob Karrow
April 2008, USA
Second, the number of unrelated occupants allowed to live in a dwelling unit. This runs the spectrum. Some college towns have no limit in their ordinances, some limit the number to no more than two unrelated people. In a variation on this, Greenville, NC, in 2005 changed zoning in some areas of the city to allow no more than three unrelated occupants in some areas near the university, while allowing higher numbers of unrelated persons in other specific areas.
While the US Supreme Court has sided with municipalities’ power to set such limits, the actual wording of ordinances that attempt to do this is key. Non-traditional families are much more common now than 50 years ago, and cities must craft the wording of such ordinances so that they are not impacting individuals who have chosen to share their lives in a long-term commitment.(Go to full article)
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Occupancy Ordinance in Bowling Green
A TownGown World Article
By. Matt Reger
April 2008, USA
Bowling Green, Ohio is a college town located in the Midwest of the United States. With a total population of approximately 30,000, of which 18,000 are students at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), the city has its share of typical town/gown issues. One issue that gets a lot of attention is the occupancy ordinance which has been in force since 1975.
The ordinance, which applies to all housing in the City of Bowling Green, requires that no more than three unrelated individuals live in a single family home. The why and wherefore of this ordinance is not very clear. From the information available it seems that the city council of the time went with a number that was used in most communities at that time in the United States. In fact, an informal survey of college communities in Ohio found that the three unrelated restriction was the most common number used. The primary reason given for adopting this restriction was the resulting crime that comes from over-occupancy including, but not limited to, loud parties, illegal parking, excess trash, and several nuisances that inhibit the quiet enjoyment of a home.
Over the years this violation has existed in many homes near BGSU and has continued to proliferate while many long term residents looked on in disgust. There were some occasions when enforcement took place, but it was never long lived. But that has changed in the past six months as three landlords have been issued criminal citations that have resulted in each being placed on probation through the Bowling Green Municipal Court. At the same time many more residents of over-occupied homes have been cited with the city’s civil infraction ordinance for the same violation.
As the city prosecutor I have been in the thick of enforcing this ordinance. Working with the city’s code enforcement office, documentation was made of several homes suspected of being over-occupied. This was initially done by making observation of the number of cars parked in the driveway of the home over a two week period. If a consistent pattern of cars was documented then the inspectors would interview the residents. After an interview, if the code officer determined that there was a violation, then the residents and the owner were served with a notice informing them to correct the violation within 10 days. If the violation was not corrected or if it was corrected but then the inspector found that after a few days of compliance the home returned to being in violation then a criminal and/or civil citation was issued.
Bowling Green has also adopted a civil infraction ordinance as a means of offering an alternative to criminal prosecution of zoning matters. In cases where the zoning inspectors find that residents have over-occupied a home without the knowledge of the owner then civil infractions are issued to the residents. On the other hand, if the landlord has been complicit in having the residents over-occupy the home by encouraging the over-occupancy or turning an intentional blind-eye to its existence we have chosen to cite the landowner criminally. Our intent in charging criminally is to place the landowner on probation for a period of time thus allowing the planning department to make unannounced inspections of homes so as to ensure compliance with the city ordinance. In some cases the landowners have up to 60 homes that they are renting. Having the ability to inspect these homes at any time has encouraged the landlords to be more diligent in ensuring their homes are compliant with the city occupancy ordinance.
In the end the aggressive enforcement by the City of Bowling Green has resulted in compliance from not only the cited offenders but many of the other landlords. Although this issue is far from over in the City of Bowling Green, our office has gone a long way in dealing with an issue that many residents have been concerned about for years. Everyone now knows that the city takes this issue seriously and will continue to enforce this ordinance actively.
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Student Stuffing: Making homes out of reach for Families? |
Occupancy Limits and Rental Property Licensing/Registration
College towns most often need to enact some form of occupany limit ordinance for either of two reasons: 1) safety 2) maintaining affordable housing for all community residents. (No [or few] limits on the number of unrelated occupants allowed in a dwelling unit can raise home prices in college towns out of the reach of families and singles/couples, since homes in college towns often sell for ten times the amount of possible yearly rental income.) (go to Collegetown Life ) |
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Occupancy Limits: Not just for Near Campus Communities |
Windsor Heights ordinance would limit occupancy
Des Moines Register
April, 2008 USA
(Excerpt) Windsor Heights is not a college town, but the Des Moines suburb is on the verge of taking a college-town approach toward the kinds of problems typically associated with rental properties occupied by college students.
The suburb is considering an occupancy ordinance that would limit the number of unrelated people allowed to live in a single-family home.
"It's basically saying you can't take a single-family home in a single-family area and turn it into a fraternity house," said City Administrator Marketa Oliver.
Officials said Windsor Heights is facing a "crisis," because older houses are changing hands and being turned into rental properties that are falling into disrepair and being overoccupied. An ordinance, they say, would protect the city's aging residential neighborhoods.
But while Ames and other cities with similar ordinances are college towns with rental houses catering to students, Windsor Heights is not. City leaders argue, though, that the suburb shares a similar situation with college towns because of its large percentage of rentals. About 23 percent of the city's 2,714 residential properties are rentals. That compares with 19 percent in Ames and 29 percent in Des Moines. |
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