Salisbury council halts removing rental exemptions
The issue of college students' behavior in city neighborhoods was front and center during a heated Salisbury City Council meeting Monday.
Mayor Jim Ireton's office proposed a piece of legislation to progressively change the makeup of several neighborhoods in order to clamp down on homes with several renting college students.
The ordinance would begin removing four-tenants residencies from certain neighborhoods by rescinding the city exemptions that allow them to exist in single-family zoned areas. Those homes would either change to two-tenant homes or single-family homes.
"In a cruel turnabout, Salisbury actually made the single-family homes that wanted to stay worth less," said Susan Phillips, the city's director of Neighborhood Services & Code Compliance. She added her office has had to spend a disproportionate amount of time combating complaints and code violations at those homes.
Landlords, homeowners, Mayor Ireton and City Council had a contentious meeting over the issue, with views varying from the city not addressing "Animal House" conditions with college students, to criticizing the mayor for creating overreaching legislation to address the issue.
It's been a controversial subject, with many pieces of legislation attempting to address the problem since the city first instituted a maximum two-tenant residence law in the early 2000s and then later offering exemptions for certain property owners.
Landlords countered that the measure is overreaching in its scope and ultimately changes a position a previous administration made in 2006, which granted 377 exemptions to properties in these neighborhoods.
Bret Hopkins, a landlord and the president of the Salisbury Area Property Owner Association, said he made several investments in properties around the area based on 25-year payment plans.
"This proposal is not going to solve what the homeowners have even addressed here," Hopkins said. "You need good landlords to step up to the plate."
He added that changing those residences to two-resident homes would require them to lower the overall rent and could lead him to having to lay off employees from his approximately $7 million payroll since 2008.
Ireton, who testified on behalf of the legislation, countered that the original agreement predicated that landlords "would police their own" or the city would act. He then cited numbers that showed several exempt homes having between 50 and 100 calls for police as evidence the exemptions are ineffective.
Kathy Brittingham, a homeowner in one of the affected neighborhoods, said she'd lived in the city for 45 years and is unhappy with the city's response to the problem. She added that she's seen homes in deplorable condition and college students throwing large parties next door drive down the property value of her home.
"They're carrying in sleeping bags there are so many people sleeping in there," Brittingham said about how certain homes have more than four people living there. "The complaints are real. They have no regard for us."
Ultimately, several council members stood up against the legislation, including Vice President Laura Mitchell. Ireton had taken aim at Mitchell's ties to the housing industry in a release sent from his campaign email account, saying she had received campaign contribution from Kevin Adams with Adams Housing, an active rental company in Salisbury.
But Mitchell dismissed the idea she was persuaded by the contribution from Adams, pointing to the fact that during the 2014 midterm elections she received a single $50 contribution from Kevin in September.
Ultimately, she was joined by council members Shanie Shields and Jack Heath in the most vocal opposition to the measure, with Heath and Shields calling on the homeowners to open up better communication with their renting neighbors and landlords.
The council chose not to move forward with the legislation, to the dismay of Mayor Ireton, who said "we will be back" with a new proposal.
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