Mini Dorms
Town Hall Meetings and Forums
Housing Forum
May 10, 2007
Mark your calendar for Thursday evening, May 10th when Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, City Attorney Mike Aguirre and I host a Student Housing Forum. It takes place from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the 12th floor of the City Administration Building located at 202 C Street in downtown San Diego. Full Story...
Town Hall Meeting
October 31, 2006
Today I received a report from the Development Services Department clarifying the definition of a bedroom. I have sent a memo to Mayor Sanders and City Attorney Mike Aguirre inquiring about the process of creating and adopting a City ordinance which would require one off-street parking space to be provided for every bedroom added to a house in a neighborhood that lies within a designated district such as a Campus Impact Area. Please click on the link below to read my memo to the Mayor and the City Attorney and the Development Services Department Report:
Town Hall Meeting
October 13, 2006
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Town Hall meeting I hosted to discuss the problem of mini dorms infiltrating our single family neighborhoods. I received lots of feedback and wonderful input from neighbors, City staff and community leaders. I have sent a memo to Mayor Sanders and City Attorney Mike Aguirre asking them to review and study some of the recommendations that were made at this meeting.
Town Hall Meeting
September 19, 2006
 View the video (requires Windows Media Player)
We've emphatically heard from residents that mini dorms are a tremendous problem and recently we've seen a proliferation of mini dorms in District 7 and other areas of the City. And we've seen that steps to address the problems associated with mini dorms clearly aren't working.
So I held a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, September 19th at the College Avenue Baptist Church. The room was overflowing with an estimated 400 people. The response was tremendous in terms of the number of people who attended, in terms of how passionate people are about this issue and in terms of ideas generated at this meeting.
It has been said that the term mini dorm was coined years ago in the College Area. That is a name for housing, typically a house in a neighborhood with single-family homes, that has multiple college students residing in this one house. Certainly college students may not have many options when it comes to affordable places to live. Property owners who want to rent their single family homes to college students are well within their rights. However, it becomes a problem when factors arising from mini dorm conditions have a negative impact on the community and the quality of life is diminished. These issues include multiple cars belonging to one residence, noise and disturbance problems, more trash and litter, and lower standards of upkeep for the house and property. In District 7, the College Area surrounding San Diego State University has been impacted. However, this is a city-wide issue that impacts communities surrounding local institutions of higher learning.
There were several handouts at the meeting. Please note that one handout said this issue is on the agenda for September 27th meeting of the LU&H Committee. Actually, the issue will be scheduled for the November 29th meeting. View the handouts we had at the Town Hall meeting.
Updates
October 23, 2007
Rooming House Ordinance to be Heard at City Council Meeting
The Rooming House Ordinance will be heard at the Special City Council Meeting on Monday, November 19, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. The meeting is being held at Mission Valley Church of the Nazarene at 4750 Mission Gorge Place. Backup materials will be available on October 23, 2007.
Residential High Occupancy Permit. Proposed amendments to Chapter 12, Article 3; Chapter 13, Article 1; and Chapter 14, Article 2 of the Land Development Code and Local Coastal Program to ensure that high occupancy residential units provide adequate parking and minimize impacts to adjacent properties. The Residential High Occupancy Permit would be required for any single dwelling unit with 6 or more persons (age 18 and older) residing for 30 or more consecutive days. The permit would require an annual permit fee and inspection and would be revocable in case of non-compliance. (Contact - Amanda Lee, 619-446-5367).
Rooming House Ordinance, Project No. 137077. Proposed amendments to the Land Development Code (Chapter 11, Article 3; Chapter 12, Articles 6 and 7; Chapter 13, Article 1; and Chapter 14, Article 2) and the Local Coastal Program, to prohibit the commercial use of single dwelling units, leased as rooming houses, in single-residential unit zones, and thereby preserve neighborhood quality, character, and livability of single-residential unit zones.
(Contact - Marianne Greene, 619-533-5822).
April 12, 2007
I am so pleased that the mini dorm issue that my office has been working on for quite some time in the College Area is receiving City-wide attention. The recent awareness that a City-wide problem exists creates a wonderful opportunity for collaboration in coming up with solutions.
To learn more about updates on this important issue view Mini Dorm Update (PDF:398K).
March 7, 2007
Mini Dorm Press Conference with Mayor Sanders,
SDSU President Stephen Weber and Councilmember Jim Madaffer
View the video (requires Windows Media Player)
Today, I joined Mayor Sanders, SDSU President Stephen Weber, Captain Guy Swanger from the San Diego Police Department and Sheri Carr of the City's Neighborhood Code Compliance Department to make some significant announcements about enforcing existing laws and tightening restrictions on mini dorms in the City.
The City will begin a pilot program that allows SDPD officers to issue on-the-spot citations with fines of up to $1,000 to persons who create disturbances in their neighborhood. In addition, the City's Code Compliance Department will send a citation to the property owner each time a tenant causes a violation.
Additionally, San Diego State University is partnering with the City to hire a code enforcement agent who will identify property maintenance issues and will distribute letters and citations for code violations in the College Area.
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