A new Prince George’s County proposal aims to limit rental housing options for university students living near the campus.
The bill, “Single Family Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay Zone,” would allow College Park and any area within two miles of a higher education institute to request an overlay zone that prohibits new rental permits and stop residents from renting property to others.
County Councilman Eric Olson, the primary sponsor of the bill, said the overlay zone becomes county code and restrictions are not imposed unless a neighborhood requests to enforce them.
“Neighborhoods can allow or disallow certain things within the county code,” Olson said.
The bill is still being amended, Olson said, but the council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee discussed it earlier in the month. It remains in the committee for further debate.
Rather than having neighborhoods dominated by rental housing, Olson said he hopes the bill will achieve balance in neighborhoods. If the bill passes, the restrictions would not apply to existing rental homes until they change ownership.
But Olson said he expects student housing options to increase throughout the next few years. He said 6,500 new student housing units have been constructed in the city in the last 10 years, and 3,000 more are on tap for future years.
“Increasing the overall supply of student housing should decrease the shortage and make student housing more affordable for all students,” said District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn, who is also co-chairman of the Neighborhood Stabilization Committee.
Wojahn said he supports the ordinance as long as it’s limited to areas that are most impacted by rental housing. It’s more likely that people who own homes will invest in the community and maintain their properties, he added.
“There are neighborhoods in the city that have seen a great increase in the amount of rental properties, and we need to promote a better balance between rental properties and owner-occupied properties,” Wojahn said. “I think we need to combine strategies like this that limit rental properties in single-family neighborhoods with other efforts to expand housing opportunities for students.”
District 1 Councilman Fazlul Kabir said he neither supports nor opposes the bill yet.
“I talked to Olson, and I understand his intent,” Kabir said. “It’s a good intent, but I have some concerns.”
Kabir said he is unsure how the bill might impact vacant and foreclosed houses in the area as housing sales have been decreasing. He also said he would like to assess the neighborhood effects first.
But ensuring that the city has family-friendly neighborhoods and age diversity is vital to the economy, Olson said, and it’s necessary to keep families contributing to the cause.
Kabir said he thinks students prefer residential neighborhoods anyway because the rent is cheaper.
“There are always the questions of whether student housing is enough and whether they satisfy the requirements,” Kabir said. “Some homeowners expressed concern about the possible restrictions in the committee hearing, and I’m hoping that a delay will include student input.”
