University of St. Thomas students moving in
SAINT PAUL, Minn. - A new city ordinance going into effect this week seeks to limit the concentration of student rental housing in a zone surrounding the University of St. Thomas.
Those who own property in that area won't be able to convert single-family homes to student rental property, if the home is within 150 feet of an existing student rental. As a baseline, the city inspectors are compiling a list of properties in that area that had been used as student housing before June 27 of 2012.
Those who wanted to know more about how the rules will be applied were encouraged to visit this link at City's Safety and Inspections home page.
"The goal is to maintain a balance in the neighborhood between student housing and non-student housing," said Scott Banas, of the West Summit Neighborhood Advisory Committee.
He said full-time residents who own their homes believe the ordinance will promote long-term stability of the area.
A study commissioned by the group revealed that the owner-occupied homes are being converted to housing at an accelerated pace. Researchers found that 140 houses within a mile of St. Thomas were converted to student rental housing during the eight-year period spanning 2002 to 2009.
Banas cited the neighborhoods near the Dinkytown area at the University of Minnesota as places where student housing now dominates some city blocks. Housing conditions, traffic, parking and noise from parties are all issues that generate complaints from more permanent residents.
Once student housing begins to gain a foothold the fears of a heavy student concentration can become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, he said.
"You start to see deferred maintenance on a lot of housing stock," Banas explained.
"At that point permanent residents begin to become anxious. And they will sell their houses, often to investors, who are looking for houses to rent to students," Banas added.
Housing Demand
At least 57 percent of the undergraduates at St. Thomas, or roughly 3,300 students, live off campus. An estimated half of them live in nearby neighborhoods.
On Monday, Elizabeth Hawkins, a St. Thomas sophomore, moved belongings into a big house across the street from the main campus in St. Paul. She lived in a dorm her freshman year, but is now making the transition to private housing with several roommates.
"We were lucky to find this," Hawkins explained. "Six other groups of people were looking at this house and our landlord had us send him all our GPA and other information, and then he picked us from that group."
She said one of her new roommate's parents considered buying a house nearby, and converting it to a rental, but was told he had missed the cut-off date.
"I'm not sure exactly what they told him, but I knew he couldn't, they wouldn't let him buy a normal house and make it a rental," Hawkins recalled.
"We were looking at one on Dayton I think, and they wouldn't let him buy it and rent it to us."
Housing inspectors say the new rules don't apply to owner-occupied structures or duplexes with one unit occupied by the landlord.
One rule of thumb, when it comes to knowing which dwellings are considered student rentals, is whether they've been required in the past to undergo a Fire Certificate of Occupancy. That involves an inspection.
Opposition
The St. Paul City Council passed the ordinance by a 5 to 2 vote in June. Council member Russ Stark, who initiated the new "Student Housing Zoning Overlay District," was not available Monday for comment.
As of Monday no legal challenges had been filed in the courts.
KARE received a news release from a group calling itself Students Against the Saint Paul Housing Ordinance, pledging to work for a different solution to the issues raised by the neighborhood group.
The news release contained quotes from both the College Republicans and the College Democrats at St. Thomas. They said they planned to negotiate with neighborhood groups near St. Thomas, St. Catherine and Macalester.
When the city of Winona implemented new restrictions on student housing, four property owners sued, claiming the new code harmed the resale values of homes they had purchased in that city, which is home to St. Mary's and Winona State.
The city of West St. Paul last year enacted a new cap, limiting rental properties to 10 percent of all homes in a city block. This took place after several areas reached a concentration of 42 percent rentals, but that cap didn't deal specifically with student housing.
When the city of Winona implemented new restrictions on student housing, four property owners sued, claiming the new code harmed the resale values of homes they had purchased in that city, which is home to St. Mary's and Winona State.
The city of West St. Paul last year enacted a new cap, limiting rental properties to 10 percent of all homes in a city block. This took place after several areas reached a concentration of 42 percent rentals, but that cap didn't deal specifically with student housing.
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