Mayor's condo proposal denounced as rent control

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is planning revisions to his proposed condo-conversion ordinance after angry property owners said it would institute rent control.

The proposed ordinance would require landlords to give disabled and elderly residents up to four years' notice when they wish to convert a unit into a condominium. The ordinance would also prevent landlords from making unreasonable rent increases in order to force tenants out.

Alderman William M. Roche said he would not support a measure that prevents Somerville residents from capitalizing on their nest eggs, their two- or three-family houses. He said the mayor's proposal ``went over the edge a little."

The board will probably spend much of the fall working to revise the draft ordinance, said Thomas F. Taylor, chairman of the Board of Aldermen's Legislative Matters Committee.

More than 200 people attended a City Hall hearing on the matter last month, and Taylor is planning a second hearing to allow more residents and property owners to give input.

Maria Moniz, an East Somerville resident, said condo conversions are energizing the city and added that she doesn't want to see them restricted.

A six-unit building around the corner from her two-family house was an eyesore until it was converted to condos, she said.

``Now you've got young people who own their properties, and they'll take care of it," said Moniz, who wants to have the option of converting her house to condos.

According to city records, the number of Somerville condo conversions increased from 341 between July 2003 and June 2004 to 578 the following year.

Curtatone blamed the outcry against his proposed ordinance on letters sent to 13,000 Somerville property owners by the Cambridge-based Small Property Owners Association, which referred to his proposal as ``backdoor rent control."

The mayor called the letters inflammatory and said they incited fear, rather than encouraging thoughtful discussion.

The association's executive director, Skip Schloming, said Curtatone was being defensive about a proposal that met with strong resistance. He said he thinks the city ``should just drop it."

``Somerville has a condo-conversion ordinance already," Schloming said.

Curtatone said his proposal was an attempt to clarify the city's protocol for converting apartments into condominiums. He said it attempts to strike a balance between the rights of property owners and renters, particularly the elderly and disabled. It would also raise the city's fee for conversion from $500 to $750 a unit.

Curtatone said the language of the proposed ordinance, which some alderman criticized as vague, will be tweaked to more narrowly define certain terms, such as reasonable rent increases. He said the city should also consider whether owner-occupied two- and three-family houses should be exempt from some of the regulations.

``Right now we're going through it with a fine-tooth comb," he said.

His office also provided a link on the city website directing residents to information about the proposed ordinance, which he said was drafted by the city's legal department.

Taylor, who represents Ward 3, said he thinks something needs to be done to rein in condo conversions. ``The condo-conversion craze is out of control," he said.

He said that how the board deals with the ordinance depends on whether aldermen want to find a way to legally preserve rental units in the city without controlling rent, a practice that was voted out in Massachusetts by a 1994 ballot.

Taylor called the mayor's proposal ``a starting point." He has not yet scheduled a second public hearing on the proposal.