More than 60 people gathered at Syracuse City Hall on Thursday to discuss a proposal that would reduce the area east of Syracuse University where an ordinance that places strict limits on rental housing exists.

The ordinance, adopted in June, requires property owners to have one off-street parking place for each potential bedroom before owner-occupied homes can be converted into rental homes. The ordinance exists in the Special Neighborhood District, which currently stretches from parts of Comstock Avenue to Westmoreland Avenue. Councilor-at-Large Jean Kessner has proposed shrinking the size of the district.

The Syracuse Common Council’s Neighborhood Preservation Committee, of which Kessner is chair, held the public meeting that lasted from 5:30 p.m. to nearly 7 p.m.

City officials implemented the Special Neighborhood District in 1991. The bedroom and parking ordinance is currently being challenged and is before the state Supreme Court. Kessner said she believes the enforcement of the ordinance is on hold while it is in court.

Kessner’s proposal would shrink the Special Neighborhood District by half of its current area but would not address the legal challenge being addressed in court.

Twenty-six people at the meeting each gave an address — although almost all of them went over the allotted time of two minutes — in front of the four members of the Neighborhood Preservation Committee, two other Syracuse common councilors and Common Council President Van Robinson.

Several people said they appreciate the balance between renters and home-owners in the neighborhood but don’t understand the rationale behind Kessner’s proposal to reduce the district.

‘This hearing is premature,’ said Michael Stanton, president of the Southeast University Neighborhood Association. ‘It’s premature not just because the city is still before the state Supreme Court arguing the related lawsuit; it’s premature because the necessary groundwork hasn’t yet been done to lay the foundations for revising the district boundaries.’

Barbara Humphrey, president of the Westcott East Neighborhood Association, said it’s not possible to comment on the proposed boundary changes, as it remains unclear what effect the changes will have on the Special Neighborhood District.

‘Rather than make a change to the boundaries at this time, perhaps the Common Council should take a more holistic look at the zoning amendments,’ Humphrey said.

Other speakers were ready to endorse the shrinking of the district.

Sharon Sherman, executive director of the Greater Syracuse Tenants Network, said the council should abolish all special zoning regulations that restrict the supply of rental housing.

‘It is clear that this legislation was aimed, since its inception, toward the discriminating against a class of tenants, which are students,’ she said. ‘It is discrimination in that it restricts the rights of students to rent housing by restricting the sale of housing for the purpose of rental.’

The Syracuse Property Owners Association, which is a group of university landlords who manage a bulk of the student housing in the district, supports the reduction of the district’s size, said Joseph Tupper, the group’s president. But he said he would’ve proposed an even greater shrinking of the district, which drew complaints from many of those in attendance.

Absentee landlords — landlords who don’t live in the neighborhood they rent out to tenants — are the people that concern John Carlos, who has lived on Sumner Avenue for more than 30 years. There are too many landlords who don’t live in the neighborhood and only have a financial interest in the district, he said.

Students have papers all over their lawns because they put their trash and recycling outside in the morning and let the wind blow it around, which absentee landlords typically don’t see, said Peter Couvares, of Maryland Avenue.

‘You walk over where it’s all rental properties, and it’s frat row,’ he said. ‘And that’s not where I want to live.’

Couvares said he still loves the neighborhood and moved there because it’s full of students. But there’s a balance in the area between owner-occupied homes and rental homes that needs to be maintained, he said.

Paul Hagenloh, an associate professor of history at SU who lives on Westminster Avenue, said he would have never bought a house in the neighborhood if the city ordinance was not in place.

Hagenloh also said he would not suggest a change to the district’s boundaries now because of the downturn in the housing market.

‘This is a terrible time to even consider a change,’ he said.

After listening to several of the statements, Dick Ford, of Fellows Avenue, said the rationale behind the proposed boundary changes was more unclear to him than when he walked into the meeting.

Said Ford: ‘After listening to all that’s been said, I’m confused but at a higher level.’

jdharr04@syr.edu

 

 

 

Published on February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu