Lea Hill residents Russ Campbell, Hank Galmish and some of their neighbors fretted the single-family homes that had been, and were being, converted to student rental housing near Green River Community College.
Converted, that is, without permits or official oversight.
Along with the danger that such possible makeshift, shoe-sized living spaces present to students being shoehorned into them, residents told City officials, came potential jerry-rigged electrical systems and genuine piles of garbage, parking issues and lots of noise.
The City’s Planning and Community Development Committee, the Auburn Planning Commission and planners worked for months on the broader issue of student/rental housing within the City, laying particular emphasis on the single-family residential neighborhoods near GRCC.
On Sept 3, the Auburn City Council passed an ordinance keyed to fix the problems cited by Campbell and his neighbors.
“Safety is our number one concern here; that students and the neighborhoods are safe,” said Council member Nancy Backus. “Yes, parking impacts, yes, noise and waste, all of those things. But safety is number one.”
Campbell was optimistic.
“I think we have received an unusual amount of attention from the people that served on the committee, the commission and in the planning department. Hopefully, this will be a solution that will help us manage those areas,” Campbell said.
The ordinance sets a Dec. 31, 2013 deadline for existing communal residences to become compliant with the new regulations, with no possibility for “grandfathering” in, pre-existing, unpermitted, student/rental housing.
By Dec. 31, property owners must also provide acceptable proof, for example, a driver’s’ license, that they themselves are living at the student/rental housing address, possibly in a separate, owner-occupied unit.
The code enforcement component begins in earnest on Jan. 1, 2014.
City staff have worked since the date of the ordinance’s passage to begin to put it into action. This week the City mailed information about it to homeowners, information keyed to arrive before school starts.
The idea there, according to Mayor Pete Lewis, is to let people know, “we’ve changed the law, be on notice.”
Senior planner Elizabeth Chamberlain said that the City has launched a website to educate people about the new ordinance. On Tuesday it mailed postcard-sized notices to affected property owners and residents with information about the website, which is to offer:
• A rental housing application form
• A copy of the new ordinance
• A conditional-use permit application for property owners who plan to convert their single family residences to student/rental housing
• In time, a list of frequently-asked questions.
Residents may post questions to a new e-mail address: rentals@auburnwa.gov.
Chamberlain said the new program begins in October, dovetailing with the start of GRCC’s school year. She said that the City will continue to work with the college on the issue of student housing.
“(GRCC) has said they are willing to work with us on sharing some address lists with the City so we can start seeing — this goes into the code enforcement piece of this — if students are putting the same address down, say, five times,” Chamberlain said. “That will help us to identify those locations that haven’t registered through the program.”
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New student rental housing rules at a glance
According to the new rules respecting student rental housing:
• The owner must obtain a rental housing business license from the City, effective for one calendar year, to operate the housing
• Annual inspection is required to obtain a rental housing business license
• Anyone under 18 living in such a rental unit is subject to the City’s curfew regulations
• The number of people that may live in such rental units is four, including the owner occupied unit.
• The owner or manager of the rental housing must allow the City, upon the issuance of a warrant, to inspect rental housing residential units.
• The owner/landlord must provide the City with information, including the total number of bedrooms in the rental unit, the total number of occupants, proof that structural additions and modifications are properly permitted and inspected, that garbage and recycling will be properly managed, that adequate off-street parking has been provided for tenants, and that noise and other public nuisances are monitored and controlled.
