Ames residents, landlords, tenants and outside community members were given the opportunity to speak up about rental housing code changes in an open forum Tuesday.

The purpose of the forum was to help gain understanding of the intentions of change recommendations and to get input from the community.

The changes in code were preceded by focus groups which got information and opinions from landlords, tenants and neighbors about the current code.

The Rental Housing Advisory Committee was later formed to deal with rental housing code issues.

The committee, made up of Ames landlords, business owners, tenants and residents of all ages, was able to offer different perspectives of the decision-making process for the current and future codes.

The committee focused on what they called “the Big Four Issues,” which included window conditions, paved versus gravel driveways, ceiling heights and non-code compliant furnaces.

Those at the meeting discussed safety and cost for changes to accommodate the new code.

One landlord said the increased size requirement for house address numbers would be a very unnecessary and costly change.

Many members of the community thought smoke detectors added to every bedroom and bigger fire extinguishers were also expensive changes.

“The committee received directives from the fire department on those three issues,” said Al Warren, landlord and member of the committee.

Clint Peterson, Ames fire chief, said those new rental housing codes were based on fire codes being put into place nationally.

Another issue discussed was the requirement that every bedroom have access to at least one lavatory without passing through another bedroom. Community members expressed that this could be just an issue of personal preference for privacy, rather than something in need of attention in the code.

A college student might not consider this privacy when looking for a place to live, but it could become a problem after a lease is finalized and the student settled in.

Alex Galyon, committee member, said this could be made into a simple requirement for landlords to specify in contracts.

The input given by the community in the forum will be transmitted to the City Council and discussed in a meeting Tuesday.