Mayor’s Proposed Plan will impact Multiple Occupancy Laws in Logan
A proposed neighborhood improvement plan for Logan would have a significant impact on multiple occupancy laws in the city.
Those laws limit residencies to a maximum of three non-related occupants, unless the residence is in an area zoned for student housing.
Not all students live in city-specified student housing, however. Under the current law, offenders pay a $50 per day fine, but will see that fine increase to $250 under the proposed plan.
“We’ve found that if you put too many unrelated individuals in a house, cars tend to be parked on the front lawn, maintenance goes down and there are a lot of noises,” said Russ Holley, a senior planner for Logan City.
In addition to the fine, the proposed plan would encourage city employees — Logan Police, a community development intern or other city representative — to be more proactive in locating offenders, a shift away from the current complaint-based policy that is dependent on citizen reporting.
As it stands, “unless someone comes to us with a complaint, properties don’t get reported and these will drag the neighborhood down,” said Logan’s Mayor Holly Daines. “If this plan passes, we can be more aggressive with occupancy laws because we will have even more reason to impose a fine.”
The plan implied that the landlords will be charged the fee, but landlords may charge tenants these fees instead.
Kyle Whittle, a student at Utah State, said he feels the fees are a lot higher than necessary.
“It just seems out of control to charge someone a thousand bucks if they are actively trying to find a new place to live. It really does take longer than 10 days to find a new place, especially during the semester,” Whittle said.
Councilwoman Jeannie Simmons said the fines will help motivate people to make improvements.
“These houses are real eyesores,” she said. “We need some sort of fee to encourage people to fix something.”
Daines addressed that multiple occupancy can be an issue because of multiple cars parked on lawns, noise levels and other disturbances.
Joe Tennant, an audience member at the meeting and a Logan citizen, said, “The fees seem severe, but I guess the penalty needs to match the problem and it seems like the older, lesser fees aren’t working.”
The adjustment to the multiple occupancy laws are part of a larger neighborhood improvement plan that is intended to revitalize older Logan neighborhoods.
“We need to reinvest in our community to keep it strong and keep people coming,” Daines said.
Daines asked for a $1 million grant from the city’s regional development agency to set aside funds for redevelopment and improvement of properties in Logan. These funds will generally target the core neighborhoods of Logan city.
The age of the structure and overall condition of the neighborhood will determine eligibility. The program targets single-family structures constructed prior to 1970.
Homeowners with a total household income equal to or less than 120 percent of Logan’s Annual Median Income are eligible to apply for these grants.
“We defined this median as 120 percent. It is not set in stone, but we think this figure is reasonable,” said Kymber Heusley, the city attorney.
The plan is currently in workshopping phases and has not been passed by city council members. Daines said she hopes to “get the ball rolling on this as soon as possible to make this happen.”
City council meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome and able to speak to city council members before, during, and after the meetings. The meetings are also now streamed online on the Logan City website.
—brianne.sorensen@aggiemail.usu.edu
@SorensenBrianne
Harming the student community sure seems to be a top priority these days.
When Logan becomes more and more difficult for college students to feel welcome in and accommodated for, those students will stop coming. These kinds of changes destine Logan for the loss of not only a huge consumer base, but a major portion of Logan’s workforce.
One semester at USU: Tuition: $3,587+ Book Fees: $200+ Class Fees: $100+ Parking: $65+ Expensive exams: $150+ Other living expenses: $900+ Ridiculous parking tickets: $50+ Rent in Logan: Three loans later and a butt load of stressful tears. The amount of negatives that will be in my bank account: priceless.
We were living out of state and were THRILLED when our son decided to attend USU just a few years ago. Tuition is extremely affordable and cost of living in the area is one of the cheapest AND safest in the nation. He received an excellent education here and moved on to Corporate America well prepared. The schools my other two children attended were at least 4 times more expensive and didn’t allow freshman to even bring a car to campus. CVTD available and FREE for everyone. There is new student housing being built constantly and many other accommodations available. I am so glad to see the City offering incentives to improve the neighborhoods and clean up the community. It is a beautiful place, and young and old should take more pride it in.
Increasing fees is not going to fix anything… Especially not the larger problem of a lack of housing for the ever-increasing student population. The fees are more often than not going to come out of the students’ pockets, certainly not discourage landlords. This proposal really misses the mark.
Make houses look prettier by taking money from broke students? Great idea! Now we have more dishonest revenue than just taking from those who park on the street for snow removal when there is no snow. It’s a good thing we hate our students! Let’s bring in some more picky old people into a college town! Keep building senior communities. Any noise or seeing cars outside houses stinks! Definetely don’t solve any problems in a direct or honest matter.
My biggest qualm with the zoning law is that there isn’t enough student housing. If that weren’t the case, why would there be so many infractions of this foolish law? As a city, you have a university nearby, and its population is growing. Move your family if you don’t like the neighborhood. Move out to Hyrum or Hyde Park where you’ll still be close to your place of employment. Students need to be close to the university more than “established families” or other bogus. My landlord was able to fit ten people, two to a room, all with parking off the street. There were no parties, no fires, no destruction of property, nor any parking infractions during the winters. Not one of the supposed consequences of too many unrelated persons in a housing unit occurred in two years of my landlord running the house. Yet we had to evict everyone mid semester this semester because of the occupancy limit. When my landlords asked if they could defer the eviction until the end of the semester to allow the students time and space to find a place and finish school, the city office replied with “no, because you’ll have a new excuse then.”
Are you kidding me? That is such a poorly developed argument with literally no consideration of the other party. My landlord was even willing to sign an eviction contract to ensure that they complied with the zoning ordinance later. It disgusts me how poorly run this city is in some regards. What an absolute, self-centered, under developed, poorly run excuse of a city.
As a student who managed my parents second home, renting rooms to other students in a single family zone: I personally could never afford to pay full rent in student housing or in a home with less than 3 non-related people. During my college career managing our home as a rental was the only way I could afford to live on 7.25-8.50/hr job. Not to say that it wasn’t stressful, but I poured my heart and soul into taking care of that home and ensuring that we were the best house on the block, not the “eyesore” that student homes often get deemed. I had developed great relationships with neighbors and learned a hell of a lot about what it takes to take care of a home and manage people. All very valuable skills to learn as a young adult. I do recognize that not many students would put this much care and time into “blending” into a neighborhood but I feel that those that do shouldn’t be punished. My suggestion for making this proposed change more of a win win, is to allow multi resident (student) homes approvable by the surrounding neighbors. If there is an agreement of expectations by neighbors, city, and renters and they are followed with flying colors then it seems that a student run home in a neighborhood might add benefit to the community by teaching our young people valuable lessons rather than just emptying their pockets.
*change to Anonymous