The Ames City Council moved forward on large changes to help address people negatively affected by a rental cap recently passed by the City Council.

At the June 26 meeting, the City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance allowing two pathways to exempt people harmed by the rental cap in addition to the final passage of a zoning ordinance. The ordinance affects a section of Lincoln Way near Duff Avenue.

The first pathway would allow for people to obtain a Letter of Compliance, the document required to rent out a property, within six months following an initial inspection to check if the property is compliant with housing codes.

There was an additional qualification for exemption that was criticized by some on the council.

Ward one representative Gloria Betcher took issue with one section of the ordinance that aimed to help people who intended to rent out their property by getting a building permit before the date of Oct. 27, 2017.

“There have been 13 open building permits filed since January, that impacts so few and right now it is very waffly,” Betcher said. “I do not feel confident we know what we are actually asking for. It is all too ambiguous.”

Ward Three representative David Martin agreed, saying it would open up a box and allow for a very specific set of people to be exempt. Martin also noted the council didn’t know the complete impacts, as the ordinance would also apply to closed building permits, which the council did not have information on.

Despite these concerns, the council decided to move forward with the ordinance unchanged and told staff to find the number of closed and open building permits that were given between the dates of Oct. 28, 2016, and Oct. 27, 2017.

The second pathway to exemption was aimed at helping people who had a financial hardship as a result of trying to sell their homes for extended periods of time.

For the full ordinance and more details on the specifics of the rental cap exemptions, click here.

These two pathways passed on a 4-2 vote, with Martin and Betcher being the two votes against.

The council also held a discussion on removing the westside neighborhood from the list of neighborhoods affected by the rental cap.

The westside neighborhood is the neighborhood closest to campus, and, subsequently, it is the neighborhood with the highest percentage of rentals. As a result, the city council wanted to hear public comments on how this rental cap would affect them.

“Of the 164 housing units in westside, 132 are opposed to the cap,” said Sue Weiss, an Ames resident who lives in the westside neighborhood. “We want this cap gone by a three-to-one margin.”

Laurie Jensen, another resident of the westside neighborhood, said she was drawn to the neighborhood by the diversity the rental properties and students bring.

“We moved in 2005,” Jensen said. “We have a block party every year, and we love the students who are there. We moved for the diversity.”

David Roepke, one resident in favor of the cap, said it would be contradictory to exempt westside.

“Based on fairness, if you remove westside, you are going to be accelerating the very activity you are trying to limit and condoning the type of activity you are trying to prohibit,” Roepke said. “I would like you all to explain the difference there is between westside and the other neighborhoods that makes them deserve an exemption.”

Betcher said she loved that people in westside wanted to have rentals nearby, but she thought it would actually be better, and in fact more stable, to keep the cap in place there.

Ward Two representative Tim Gartin and At-Large representative Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen agreed, saying the caps in nearby neighborhoods would funnel a higher percentage of rentals to westside, disturbing its current balance.

The council decided to not vote on the issue following the discussion.

The other focus of the meeting was on the final passage of a zoning ordinance along the stretch of Lincoln Way near Duff Avenue.

The zoning changes would require businesses to change their layout with the goal of increasing efficiency and allow for long-term development of businesses.

After last City Council meeting, businesses in retail trade, wholesale trade, detention facilities, warehousing and storage, vehicle service stations and vehicle repair facilities were exempted from the zoning ordinance.

Before the final passage, Beatty-Hansen started a motion to remove the affected areas west and north of Gilchrist Street, which passed on a 4-1 vote, with Betcher voting against the changes. Betcher said she was against the zoning as a whole, so she was against the changes.

The final ordinance passed on a 4-1 decision, with Betcher being the sole vote against.

For full details on the changes the zoning ordinance will create, click here.

The rental cap that was passed limits the number of rental properties in neighborhoods near campus to 25 percent. On October 27, 2017, City Council created a moratorium on all new rental properties close to the Iowa State campus to prevent people from starting rental properties in anticipation of the cap.

The exemptions were proposed as a result of concerns on the council that the rental cap could cause financial harms to Ames residents who had wanted to rent out their property but hadn’t gone through with it by the time the moratorium had passed.