Occupancy Meeting 7.17.17 Please be sure to sign in at the door! Questionnaire: Please fill out the questionnaire located at the entrance and turn in at the end of the meeting. This will help us gather quantitative data to report back to the City Council Time Frame: We have a short amount of time and want to hear from as many people as possible. Please keep your comments brief and concise so that we can accommodate everyone. The 5:00 meeting will need to convene by 6:45 to allow attendees for the 7:00 meeting to arrive. The 7:00 meeting will need to convene by 8:45 to allow the library to close at 9:00. Thank you in advance for your input!

Regulating Occupancy Under the new state law

Legislative action The State of Iowa has passed the following law: A city shall not, after January 1, 2018, adopt or enforce any regulation or restriction related to the occupancy of residential rental property that is based upon the existence of familial or nonfamilial relationships between the occupants of such rental property. The City of Ames currently limits the number of people in many areas to one family or three unrelated people

Steps taken City staff has met with: representatives from other Iowa cities to brainstorm ideas that would help regulate occupancy Internal staff to discuss options and strategies SCAN City presented a few options to Council on 7/18/17 Council asked staff to meet with neighborhoods and landlords to gather more feedback

Iowa cities meeting The following are options that were discussed at the meeting with Cedar Falls, Iowa City, & Des Moines: Limit based on per-person square footage allotment Limit to a specific number of adults (18 and up), but to allow this to be exceeded through a Conditional Use Permit Limit by number of bedrooms Limit the number of rental units within a certain area Establish a separation distance between rentals Eliminate the owner-occupied exception More aggressive enforcement (paid for by increased rental fees)

Iowa cities meeting, cont. Representatives at the meeting agreed on the following: Concern that any action to limit occupancy will be taken up by the General Assembly next session If the options selected either 1)limits the percentage of rentals in a neighborhood or 2) creates a separation distance between rental properties, there will be concerns about grandfathering existing rental units while their licenses are valid and whether they can receive a new license if they do not meet the restriction. How do we allocate licenses equitably? Basing limitations solely on age could be unworkable for many households within the City due to the recent trend of children returning to home as adults or grandparents being cared for by adult children.

Iowa cities meeting, cont. One possible strategy was the following four-point approach: Restrict a specific neighborhood to a certain percentage of rental properties Grandfather the existing rental properties so that existing rentals would not be subject to the percentage restriction. Perform more aggressive, proactive inspections of rental properties to eliminate those issues that are negatively impacting neighborhoods (off street parking, noise, property maintenance, life and safety code issues, etc.) Establish a process to revoke a rental housing permit privilege for repeat offenders identified through inspection process. For example, a potential list of progressive sanctions for violations could include: 1st Offense – property placed on an annual inspection cycle 2nd Offense – restrict permit to 6 months 3rd Offense – revoke permit for a period of time

Follow-up staff meeting Staff tried to focus a list of options for the City Council to consider: Limit the concentration of rental units in a specified geographic area Used outside of Iowa and approved in Courts Current rentals would be grandfathered This would only prevent the increase of rental properties Limit the number of adults that can inhabit a unit Determining the appropriate maximum has proven to be very difficult due to changing family dynamics Limit occupancy to a specified amount of square footage per person The minimum square footage established in the building codes is very small so this might not be helpful Average space per person in a single family home could determine the minimum required space

Follow-up staff meeting, cont. Limit occupancy based on the number of off-street parking spaces Many properties do not have room to add spaces Create a minimum percentage for greenspace in back yards so that they don’t become parking lots Limit occupancy based on a multi-tiered approach No more than 2 people, 18 or older, per bedroom or a total of 5 adults; If they want more than that, they need to show that they meet a certain amount of square feet per person If they meet the square footage requirement, they would need to show that they have enough off-street parking

Scan meeting SCAN sees a need to maintain an occupancy regulation similar to the current one. They suggest the following options for limiting occupancy: Limit to no more than 3 adults aged 18-55 Limit to no more than 3 undergraduates Restrict the addition of rental units in RL neighborhoods Limit additions to current rentals Incentivize conversion from rental to owner-occupied houses More aggressively enforce the nuisance violations Restrict changes to architectural features on rental units (enclosing a porch)

Summary Do we regulate occupancy by type of people or by property characteristics? Limit the number of adults in a unit (people) Limit the number of tenants based on square footage, number of bedrooms, number of off-street parking spaces, or some other indicator (property) Do we put a concentration on the number of rentals in a geographic area? Do we more aggressively enforce on the property maintenance issues on rental properties?