As the housing debate on occupancy ordinances continues, the city council is nearing a Jan. 1, 2018 deadline that will lift the current restriction on rental housing that is based on non-familial status. 

Over the past few months, the city has been weighing possible alternatives to restricting occupancy, as well as debating if they should do something at all. 

In a report by city staff that will be discussed at the council meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, several options have been suggested to restrict occupancy, including:

• limiting occupancy to no more than three students,
• by building size,
• by number of bedrooms,
• or by the number of off-street parking spaces

Additionally, the report reviews whether or not the city should limit the concentration of rental units to a specified geographic area as well as what that might look like. 

Apart from occupancy restrictions or rental concentration, the staff also reviewed how to better enforce rental units and those occupying them. This could be done through revoking a rental’s letter of compliance after the tenants receive violations such as simple misdemeanors or municipal infractions, according to the report. 

Occupancy restriction has been a divisive issue between city stakeholders, with landlords and neighborhood associations converging on what the best approach to rentals may be. 

As to whether or not the city should regulate occupancy to begin with, the majority of landlords — during a housing workshop hosted by the city in August — said no, however, the neighborhood representatives said yes.

Should occupancy be enforced, the landlords displayed preference by bedroom whereas the neighborhoods prefer restriction by number of people.  

This preference based on number of people — over the course of several city council meetings — eventually shifted to the preference of a restriction based on number of students.

This is something that Student Government Senior Director of Governmental Affairs Kody Olson is strongly against. 

In an email, Olson said Student Government opposes restrictions based on number of students as well as parking spots. This is out of fear that these policies could be discriminatory against students and will “reduce the access that Iowa State students have to affordable, off-campus housing.”

To buy more time in its decision-making, the council may also pass at Tuesday’s meeting an ordinance that will establish a moratorium on the issuance on new rental occupancy permits for single- and two-family homes in neighborhoods surrounding campus. 

The staff report requests that the city council begin to immediately “focus their attention on how to limit occupancy and and address other issues raised in this report prior to the end of the moratorium” on April 30, 2018.