By Alex Maragos
Proposed changes to city housing rules would place more restrictions on parties in houses rented by college students in Lexington.
If the changes are approved by the Planning Commission and City Council, city officials would keep track of all complaints and violations on the properties and compile a report to give to the landlords annually. The changes would also give the city more clout in revoking housing permits.
If four or more unrelated tenants live in a house in Lexington, a conditional use permit for large capacity housing is required. Those permits are typically granted to homes rented by Washington and Lee University students. According to city documents, many of the large-capacity houses are on Randolph Street or Henry Street in the Diamond Hill neighborhood.
Many of the complaints about large-capacity houses are the student parties that take place there.
“We’re not going to live with that problem forever if it’s not going to be fixed,” Planning Commission Member Camille Miller said.
Miller said reports are supposed to be submitted regularly to the Planning Commission. However, because there have been gaps in the reports, the commission is proposing to require them annually.
Under the proposal, if tenants receive three citations, the landlord would be placed on 24-month probation. If the tenants break the law during the probation period, then the landlord’s housing permit would be revoked. Also, the landlord would have 30 days to appear before the Planning Commission to address tenant behavior.
Pat Smith, a senior at W&L, lived in the Diamond Hill neighborhood last year.
“There’s a sizable student population around there that likes to have their fair share of parties,” he said.
City Council Member Mary Harvey-Halseth said that noise, trash and lack of parking are the three complaints she hears the most from residents in Diamond Hill.
“Take Henry Street and North Randolph [Street] for example … what you have is Party Alley,” Harvey-Halseth said. “There are times of the year — especially at the end of each semester — where it gets really hard for the neighbors.”
Lexington police have been swift to respond to those complaints, Smith said.
“Living [in Diamond Hill] for a year I definitely saw my fair share of parties,” he said. “It usually wouldn’t last that long. Local law enforcement would step in quickly and nip it in the bud before it got out of hand.”
Ollie Drew has lived on Randolph Street for 32 years. He said parking is his biggest concern, although trash and noise remain an issue. City officials see the proposed changes as a way to hold landlords and tenants accountable for what goes on in Diamond Hill.
Miller said that several landlords proposed the changes to protect their interests in the large capacity homes.
“It’s a big investment for them and they’re determined to make their investment work,” she said.
Another part of the proposed change would allow landlords to renew their permits every five years. Under the current regulations, large-capacity houses are granted permits for two years. Harvey-Halseth said she understands the landlords’ concern about permit renewal.
“They don’t want as many restrictions on how often they come forward,” she said. “They are abiding, so far, by the things that we ask for.”
Miller also said that landlords have done a better job recently of working with City Council and participated in the drafting of the proposed new guidelines.
“Everything that they wanted, we agreed to because it’s reasonable,” she said.
Miller and Harvey-Halseth said that neither W&L nor the student tenants have been very active in the amendment process. Discussions with the landlords, however, have helped Harvey-Halseth better understand the student housing issue.
“The owners of the homes are concerned with this because they’re saying to the city, ‘If you start restricting us and we can’t rent these as they are, it’s a loss of income, but it also could create vacant properties,’” she said. “What else do you do with these enormous houses? That’s where I changed my mind. That’s where I went: ‘You’re right.’”
Although the proposal was on the agenda for the March 8 meeting, large-capacity housing was not discussed. A two-hour debate on a plan to renovate the old library building at 312 South Main Street into retail and restaurant space caused the issue to be tabled until next week.
If the changes are approved by the Planning Commission on March 22, then City Council could vote on the matter as early as the first week of April.