If at first you don’t succeed, find a backhanded way of accomplishing your goal of containing the student population in the university-area neighborhood by making it virtually impossible for new rental homes to go on the market.

It doesn’t sound as good as ‘one parking spot per bedroom,’ but it does the trick.

A new parking ordinance passed Oct. 9 by the Syracuse Common Council forbids landlords from putting new property up for rent in the university-area neighborhood unless it has at least one parking spot per bedroom. It follows on the heels of an ordinance last year that would have limited the number of unrelated adults per dwelling from five to three, a measure that failed due to fear of lawsuits from landlords in the area. So the Council decided to take a different approach by keeping the number of off-campus students where it is now instead of drastically reducing it.

With the limited space in the neighborhood surrounding the university, it will be nearly impossible for a landlord to meet the requirements of the new ordinance. The Council approved the plan as a way to undercut any more landlords from offering new housing options to students by disguising it as a parking law instead of a housing law. There’s no doubt that the streets are overcrowded and parking is difficult, but since the ordinance only applies to future rental properties, it does little to alleviate the current problem.

Competition is already fierce among students for off-campus housing. Many are forced to sign a lease nine or 10 months before they even intend to move in so they are guaranteed a place to live the following school year. The Council’s parking ordinance will stop landlords from buying properties close to campus and force students to look for housing past Lancaster Avenue or even Westcott Street, beyond walking distance from campus.

But it is important to note the overall intentions of the Council are for the betterment of the community as a whole, not just a way to keep noisy students out of the neighborhood. The councilors are simply trying to appeal to their constituents who see the value of living close to the university. It’s a desirable neighborhood with easy access to downtown, shops and hospitals that deserves to be shared with local Syracuse residents as well as students.

‘We’d love to make it more of a ‘regular’ neighborhood,’ said Harry Lewis, treasurer of the South East University Neighborhood Association, in a phone interview. His organization supported the new parking ordinance. ‘It’d give the students the experience of living with locals.’

In the future, if the Council intends to improve the quality of the university neighborhood by reducing student density, it should do so with the fairness of both students and the local population in mind, not just one or the other. Until more living options are offered in the area, tighter restrictions on rental properties will only result in students without a convenient place to live.

Steve Kovach is a biweekly columnist for The Daily Orange. He can be reached at sjkovach@gmail.com.

Published on October 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm