Overflow crowd at testy hearing on student housing

March 12, 2008 02:23 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

The Boston Zoning Commission unanimously approved a controversial measure this afternoon that limits the number of undergraduate college students who can share an apartment to a maximum of four.

The 9-0 vote by the commission came after an overflow crowd packed a tense and often testy meeting at City Hall that featured impassioned speeches and sharp debate on both sides of the issue. An unusual coalition of neighborhood groups, colleges, and city leaders squared off against realtors to debate the measure, which will have broad ramifications on the estimated 13,000 college students who live off-campus in Boston neighborhoods, the overall rental housing market, and the citywide friction between colleges and their neighbors.

The proposal was unanimously passed by the City Council in December and had the strong support of Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The commission was the last hurdle for the measure, and it will now become a city regulation.

Sponsored by City Councilor Michael Ross, the plan will change how the zoning code defines a family to prevent five or more unrelated students from living together. Ross and other supporters of the measure said it would help prevent landlords from turning single- and two-family homes into high-rent, multibedroom apartments for large numbers of students.

The influx of students into residential neighborhoods -- chiefly Mission Hill, Brighton, and the Fenway -- have priced out working class and middle-class families by driving up housing costs and have disrupted life with loud parties, supporters said.

State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, who represents Mission Hill, said students from nearby Northeastern University have "essentially eradicated the family housing" in the neighborhood and other areas near colleges.

"You look at these neighborhoods that were all families and now you can count them on one hand," he said to applause. "That concerns me."

Captain William Evans, a Boston police officer, said he had seen first-hand how large groups of students living together could hurt residents' quality of life.

"We dread September and October in the Fenway and Allston-Brighton area," he said. "It's a tremendous drain on our resources. Nothing bothers me more than hearing people are fed up and fleeing the city."

Opponents, many of them property owners and college students, said the occupancy limit violated their property rights and unfairly singled out a specific group of people. They denounced the plan as unenforceable and said it would backfire by creating a housing shortage that would drive up rents.

"This is a backdoor form of rent control," said Stephen Greenbaum, a Boston lawyer. "You can't simply single out a particular group and say they can't live together."

Greg Hummel, a Brighton property owner, said the city should concentrate on enforcing housing codes and cracking down on absentee landlords.

"If you reduce my five-bedroom to four, I'll just raise the rent to what I would have gotten," he said. "And if students can't afford it, do you think the Starbucks crowd will pay any less?"

Ross said other cities had adopted similar measures and that the courts had upheld the restrictions. He said speculative landlords had converted housing originally intended for families into large apartments catering to students to maximize their rents. That has driven up housing costs and displaced many families, he said.

"You can't let profit dominate the public debate," he said.

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com