Community members joined the City Council for an input session on introducing new restrictions on rental properties and occupancy levels, particularly in areas affected by the growth in University attendance.

About 15-20 people came to the workshop. Council Member Peter Orazem filled in for Mayor Ann Campbell, who was traveling, on leading the discussion.

The talk on changes to rental codes began with presentations from city staff and from the Campustown housing association. 

Steven L. Schainker, City Manager, led the staff presentation, so he was not sitting with the council as he usually does. He was joined by Sara VanMeeteren, Community Codes Liaison, Mark Lambert, Interim City Attorney, and Shawn Bayouth, Fire Chief.

Current rental codes limit occupancy by family (being related by blood) or to three unrelated adults. Lambert said the law will prohibit using family or blood relation in restrictions, but other ways of limiting occupancy could be allowed.

Schainker said this was what he considered to be the beginning of the conversation, because the City has not yet reached out to neighborhoods or rental associations. The law will go into affect on January 1, 2018. 

“One of the biggest concerns for the staff… whatever you do, if you make some major changes, we have to verify these changes is January … implementation is something we’re going to have to think about,” Schainker said. 

Council Member Tim Gartin questioned whether leases beginning in August would be using current laws or future laws, but Council Member Gloria Betcher felt that was unnecessary because there have always been instances of an illegal number of tenants occupying.

It’s not just in Ames.

Other cities in Iowa are also trying to address preserving single-family homes and controlling rental occupancy.

“No one has the answer yet,” Schainker said. “Iowa City … did move ahead to establish a temporary moratorium.”

Gartin also wondered if the legislature had been contacted. Schainker said there is a chance anything the City does could be barred by the legislature the following year. Gartin compared it to a game of wack-a-mole, with anything the city does being “wacked down” by the legislature.

“Meanwhile, we leave our community in a state of uncertainty,” Gartin said.

Schainker said there was a realization that the cities who met to discuss possible restrictions could not increase enforcement of current nuisance laws. He also pointed out there is an option to do any number of the options together.

“It raised a lot of positive and negative responses to all of these,” Schainker said. 

Set occupancy differently in different areas.

“We know that’s been upheld in the courts in the state of Minnesota. That doesn’t deal with density within a unit,” Schainker said. “A policy issue would be to address what is that boundary.”

There also could be difficulty with grandfathering in the current rentals in the restricted area.

“It does appear to us a lot of the dialogue is dealing with the low-density units,” Schainker said. 

Robert Bingham, student liaison to the council, said his concern for lowering occupancy levels or number of rentals near campus would increase of students who live away from campus bringing cars and attempting to park, and that the change would need to be structured to be gradual if, for example, south campus neighborhoods went down to 20 percent rentals from current levels at 60 percent.

Set occupancy by number of adults, period.

“This has nothing to do with family. This means if you come in as a family, and you have a certain number of people, that may prohibit their ability to rent,” Schainker said.

He said it’s easy for a family of two parents to have a set of their parents and a child over the age of 18 living with them, putting the family’s number of adults at five, and finding an effective number to limit at would be difficult.

The South Campus Area Neighborhood (SCAN) association contacted the city to share their concerns. They suggested limiting the number of adults, but within a certain age range, such as 18-55, or by educational status such as undergraduate. Schainker emphasized that SCAN’s suggestions had not been vetted by the city for legality or feasibility.

Set by number of bedrooms or square footage or parking spaces.

SCAN also brought up limiting expanding or building additional rooms on to rentals. A representative said basing number by number of bedrooms creates additional rooms and enclosed porches turned into bedrooms, which changes the character of the neighborhoods and how attractive the housing and neighborhood looks.

Her concern about basing it off parking is many rentals have already paved backyards or extended driveways that can stack multiple cars.

Using square footage or parking space per renter means larger rentals could have more people, and therefore would not effectively cap the number. 

Orazem wanted to know what identified a rental unit. Betcher asked for clarification whether it was number of apartments, number of buildings or number of bedrooms. VanMeeteren said a home, split into two apartments, is two units, but an apartment with two bedrooms is still one unit.

The community said: 

A representative from SCAN brought a map that highlighted the number and location of rentals in the area around Stanton Avenue and Lynn Avenue, between Knapp Street and past Storm Street. She said Hayward Avenue, not included on the map, is 83 percent rental.

“Those students are on their own for the first time. There is an advantage for those students to have a house … you cannot have a 200 person party that spills over your yard and into the street in an apartment,” she said.

The yard and sidewalks was another complaint she brought forth, because students do not care for them like a traditional homeowner. She said the homes in the area could be considered historical, either because of ties to Iowa State College or because of the style of architecture.

“It’s desirable for young families,” Leslie said. “We want to build on that trend.”

Leslie identified the vulnerable areas as also being full of affordable housing opportunities, being lost to families to rentals. Larger, more expensive houses are purchased by parents for their child and friends to live in – which is not considered a rental but owner-occupied.

Leslie would rather the density cap be closer to 20-30 percent similar to many other cities. They also can include limited exemptions for homeowners – such as a year-long permit when a homeowner is on sabbatical, or if their house cannot sell.

A community member who lived on Hayward Avenue spoke on her experience living near rental housing. Her previous living space, in Michigan, was a similar neighborhood, but had an overlay housing restriction. 

She said over time she saw the difference the overlay made in attracting young families and elderly residents who would be invested in the value of the neighborhood. The value of her home also increased following the overlay.

A representative from the Ames Rental Association said there was a lack of information from other neighborhood associations and landlords, and lack of information what those city codes already address but is not adequately enforced. 

One community member, who lives on Storm Street, proposed the city look in to limiting residency based on tax status – such as if someone is listed as a dependent or not. 

One community member also brought up concerns about temporary rentals, such as through AirBnB. A search on AirBnb for rental rooms in Ames at the time of the meeting brought up 68 rentals.

One woman, who said she is a property manager in town, said other property managers also welcome occupancy limitations. She echoed other community members in enforcement changes over additional restrictions.

“The house isn’t responsible for the party,” she said. “The occupant is.”

She said landlords don’t like destructive tenants either, because they are financially harmful.

At the end of the night, the council asked staff to meet with other neighborhood and rental representatives, and to bring back more information on neighborhoods and the cost of incentivizing conversion from rentals to single-family homes.