“This is really a neighborhood-driven petition to try to preserve the character of the neighborhood and to keep the attractiveness,” said Jung-Han Chen, the city’s community development director. An overlay changes limits on residential occupancy. Without this overlay, a single dwelling unit can house up to four unrelated people. With the overlay, there’s a limit of two.
Resident Allan Winkler, one of the petitioners, outlined the reasons for requesting the overlay. He has lived in the area for 28 years.
“It has functioned as a real neighborhood. Children have grown up, they’ve played in the streets, there are block parties usually three times a year … it’s really felt very good for everybody there,” he said.
For that reason, the neighborhood has fought attempts by developers to turn houses into student rentals. One couple recently moved out of their home, and in the process of selling the house, it was discovered that the one of the potential buyers already owned a student rental property on Chestnut Street that would be contiguous to the properties in question, said Winkler. The property is scheduled to close as a student rental at the end of this month.
“As all of this transpired, we became frightened about what all of this portended. That really is the basis for this petition — our effort to preserve it as we have known and enjoyed it … we were encouraged that another neighborhood a few months ago was successful in this effort,” said Winkler.
Council approved the resolution, which sends the petition to the planning commission. It would not go before planning commission unit August, because by law, there is a 45-day notification period, said Chen.
However, even if the property is closed on with a rental permit before August, there are “legal efforts that could be made as long as this (overlay) process was underway,” Winkler said.
The other overlay district, approved in March, was for 29 parcels in the area of Contreras Road, James Road, Dick Drive and Joseph Drive.
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