PARKING and Transportation - quite possibly the most trou-blesome combination of tasks a student must try to endure while at the University. As the school has grown larger in population over the past century, student housing has sprawled outward as well. As the University continues to grow and accommodate an expanding population, outdated zoning laws restricting the density of off-Grounds housing must change.
In 1984, the City of Charlottesville passed ordinances that limited the number of non-related inhabitants of a domicile to four people. Because the laws were not retroactive, all fraternity and sorority houses that existed prior to the ordinance were not affected. The city ordinance applies to all residential zones surrounding the University, ranging from four students in a house to four students per duplex unit.
Some point to community sentiments against brothels and other houses of disrepute as the origins of such laws. However, this hardly is a problem in current off-Grounds housing neighborhoods. This is unlikely considering that the laws originated in the early 1980s. It is more likely that neighborhood residence-owners spoke up against the raucous atmosphere created in areas of high University student occupancy.
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Dozens of students in off-Grounds houses and apartments are bound to be difficult neighbors, but the sprawl of students into formally student-free areas is the real problem. Residents of these neighborhoods have no desire to become inundated with student expansion and will raise more objections at City Hall. Forcing students to search for housing farther from central Grounds, which is what the housing ordinances do, does not take any of the pressure off of City Council, and it comes with additional complications.
The farther away that students move, the more costly it becomes to transport them en masse to the University. The roads of Charlottesville already are overburdened with student, faculty and staff traffic during the day, and little space exists to convert into parking. Even if enough parking existed to accommodate students, garage costs are unaffordable for most students to use continuously during the year.
The University and City Council should work in the opposite direction to solve off-Grounds housing problems. By encouraging larger groups of students to live together, the city will keep a higher density of students closer to central Grounds and out of residential zones, of non-University affiliated homeowners. This would stifle incentives for students to drive to class, would encourage student health through increased exercise and might reduce capacity on busses.
Increased numbers of student tenants per residence would alleviate a large financial burden from students' shoulders. Double rooms could reduce the rent paid by students drastically, in contrast to the exorbitant costs for single rooms that students incur under the current city ordinances.
Changing these laws also would provide a large incentive for new development in close proximity to central Grounds. Developers could design newer housing that would accommodate more students than the current ordinances allow. Houses built to house more than four students before the ordinances were enacted are exempt from the law. This stifles new development because the old residences legally can hold more people. Once destroyed, the structures that replace them must abide by the current ordinance.
Admittedly, a possible problem that would result from expanded numbers of tenants per domicile could be rent inflation. A large single room rented for $400 per month could be turned into a double. Without rent ceilings, a landlord could set the rent at $250 per month. This increases the gross income for the room by 25 percent. It would take additional student initiatives to prevent the students from being taken advantage of by landlords.
Traffic is congested, rents are too high, sprawl is becoming a reality and parking is nearly nonexistent. The city and University need to sit down together to work these problems out. The most obvious solution is to rescind the ordinances that limit the amount of students living together. It may create a less desirable condition in neighborhoods close to central Grounds and may appear undesirable to many landowners, but the benefits so clearly outweigh the costs that leaders would be remiss in not addressing the issue. Besides, imagine how much more fun would it be to relive the first year experience, where everyone you knew lived within a five minute walk. It is time to bring student housing back to central Grounds. The four person non-related ordinance needs to go.
(Preston Lloyd is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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