City Attorney Mike Aguirre gave the 100 or so people at a Stop Mini Dorms rally Thursday, June 28, a civics lesson on how things are really done down at City Hall.
Residents from Pacific Beach, the College Area and Del Cerro sporting red shirts as a sign of solidarity came together in front of the house at 1222 Chalcedony St. that has come to symbolize the mini-dorm issue in Pacific Beach to raise awareness about the Rooming House Ordinance going before the City Council on Monday, July 9.
While both Faulconer and Aguirre were present to show their support of preventing a developer from subdividing a home to house dozen or more renters under one roof, the red-shirted residents were skeptical of the way the proposed ordinance was being written.
An email announcement calling for the afternoon rally warned that if the ordinance didn’t have a retroactive clause to shut down currently operating mini-dorms, the ordinance would actually make it easier to open up new mini-dorms.
“Any owner claiming their rental was a rooming house prior to the enactment of the Rooming House definition could convert their rental into a mini-dorm,” the email stated. “All they would need to do is show they have rented to more than three people in the past year.”
The group was prepared and peppered Aguirre with questions about the suspect retroactive loophole and why can’t he go after abuses with code violations.
Addressing the code aspect, Aguirre said police have “CAPPed” 17 houses in Pacific Beach since May.
CAPP, which stands for the Community Assisted Party Plan, allows police to label the home a nuisance for excessive parties and fine both the residents and the property owner up to $1,000 for noise violations.
When it comes to adding a retroactive clause, he said it was going to take some maneuvering.
“Retroactive opens up the [ordinance] to lawsuits and it being overturned, which starts the process all over again,” he said.
He said a retroactive clause to ban existing mini-dorms would infringe on property rights and be ruled unconstitutional. But a ban on any new mini-dorms, combined with new rules such as making it illegal to pave over front lawns for parking, would begin to make it more difficult economically to operate a mini-dorm.
He said the real way to solve the mini-dorm issue and other threats to single-family zones, such as vacation rentals, was force the City Council to add a community bill of rights to the city charter and guarantee funding to keep community plans updated.
“The best way to strengthen the neighborhood is to strengthen the power of the people in that neighborhood,” he said.
One Monday, July 2, Paul Martin, who lives across the street from the Chalcedony house and helped organize Thursday’s rally, met with the city attorney and discovered, at most, the
Rooming House Ordinance will be open for public discussion only.
Before it can be docketed, the ordinance must first go through an environmental review.
Instead, the council will be voting on an amendment regarding zoning for mini-dorms that would allow for up to six bedrooms. In the College Area, there would also be limits regarding garage conversions
Martin believes the amendment still leaves the entire city open to continued mini-dorm conversions.
He is now asking everyone to email the city clerk to request that the proposed Department of Development Services proposed code changes be postponed indefinitely.
“[The changes] are completely ineffective and a burden on the homeowner,” he said.
He said there are still plenty of loopholes, such as enlarging bedrooms to allow for more tenants, that would allow future mini-dorm conversions.
To bring the problem to the attention of the City Council Martin and other anti mini-dorm organizers are gathering for a protest at City Hall before the July 9 council session.
For information and the exact time about the downtown protest, visit www.stopminidorms.com.