1. 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!

2. Regulating Occupancy
Under the new state law

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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?