Similar to the way that mini-dorms have invaded their neighborhoods, residents “” mostly clad in red T-shirts with anti-mini-dorm logos “” overran City Council chambers Thursday, May 10, to hear officials’ plans to halt the transformation of their communities.
The public forum on mini-dorms ” homes in single-family residential zones occupied by multiple unrelated adults “” was held to present a possible new rooming-house ordinance. The plan limits three or more bedroom dwelling units rented through separate leases to multi-family residential and commercial zones only.
City Attorney Michael Aguirre led a panel of representatives from three local universities, as well as law enforcement and City Council members, in a discussion that centered on the lack of housing for college students and its increasing impact on surrounding areas.
“The universities have a fundamental moral obligation to find and provide housing for their students “” I truly believe that,” Aguirre said to residents and panel members. “We have a group of people taking advantage of the problem. We want to send the word to all of these predatory developers that it’s better to quit now than to have us find out later and have to deal with it in court.”
City Council is tentatively scheduled to hear the proposed rooming-house ordinance on July 9. In addition, the city is proposing land-use amendments that would require property owners to provide additional parking spaces for rentals with more than four bedrooms and two parking spaces per garage. The amendments are intended to deter home expansions and garage conversions.
The changes would also reduce the percentage of front-yard space that can be used for parking and would increase the number of required off-street parking spaces.
District 7 Councilman Jim Madaffer also announced the launch of a nonprofit organization, Stabilizing College Neighborhoods, that would buy houses in the College Area before developers had the chance and offer them to San Diego State University faculty and staff, as well as other prospective buyers, in order to prevent mini-dorm conversions, he said.
At the same time, Madaffer and Aguirre said city efforts would have to be met by residents and university officials in order to be successful.
Using statistics provided by the University of California, San Diego, SDSU and the University of San Diego, Aguirre calculated that the three campuses combined do not provide housing for more than 50,000 students.
The greatest shortfall of student housing is generated by SDSU, which has 34,000 students enrolled this year and houses only 4,000 on campus. At UCSD, approximately 17,000 of the 26,000 students enrolled do not live on campus, and USD provides about 2,300 of the campus’ 7,500 students with on-site housing.
Madaffer took a strong position on generating additional on-campus housing designed to provide similar amenities as private developments in an effort to bring students back on site.
Residents holding “PB says no mini-dorms” signs told the panel that the main problem is absentee landlords who are not taking responsibility for their tenants. Pacific Beach resident Paul Martin suggested that police issue heftier fines under the Community Assisted Party Plan (CAPP) program, which allows a residence to be sanctioned if police receive two or more disturbance calls within 30 days or respond to the same home twice in a 24-hour period.
The program allows officers to issue $1,000 citations for tenants at houses that have already been CAPPed and to notify the landlord of the situation. If the problem persists after the property owner has been warned, officers can write the owner a citation and take him or her to court, according to San Diego police Capt. Boyd Long of the Northern Division.
Aguirre encouraged residents to use the CAPP program as one way to combat mini-dorm situations, but some people pointed to holes in the system stemming from a lack of officers to respond to such complaints.
“CAPP is excellent, but it’s only as good as the response,” said Roger Newell, a College Area resident. “On Friday and Saturday nights when I call, no one comes because there is not a sufficient number of officers in the San Diego Police Department.”
Tyler Sherer, SDSU’s director of community relations, said the campus hired a code enforcement officer who works in conjunction with the city’s police department to respond to disturbance calls. The campus also plans to double its housing in the near future, according to Sherer.
At UCSD, on-campus housing will increase to support an additional 4,000 students over the next four to five years, according to Gary Ratcliffe, UCSD’s assistant vice chancellor.
Even with the universities’ expansion plans, city officials said they were certain the mini-dorm issue would continue and resolved to remain vigilant in the fight to preserve neighborhoods.
“The beach areas are always going to be an attractive area for people to want to live; I don’t care what age you are,” District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer said. “Even with more housing on campus, the need for this ordinance is still going to exist. The good news is there is momentum, and I’m confident we can get the job done.”