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The City Council’s latest attempt to corral monster homes is another bust. What is desperately needed is for the Council to provide a means of actually enforcing the occupancy limits that are already in the Land Use Ordinance (LUO).
A planner with Department of Planning and Permitting has admitted to me that DPP has no means of enforcing the occupancy limits that are specified in the LUO. Therefore, unscrupulous developers can build legal monster houses with nine bedrooms and baths, and rent the rooms out as studio apartments with potentially 18 or more unrelated occupants — a clear violation of the LUO. That is where the crackdown effort should be directed.
Let them have the bedrooms and bathrooms; just strictly limit the number of people who can live there. If the Council puts some teeth in enforcement, no owner could be grandfathered in as they would already be in violation.
John Arnest
Wilhelmina Rise
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