Macalester, St. Thomas, and Hamline students joined neighborhood residents and landlords Monday night for a community forum in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall with St. Paul City Councilmember Jay Benanav to discuss his proposal to regulate off-campus student housing.

Approximately 100 people attended the forum, most of whom were not Macalester students.

Councilman Benanav’s proposed ordinace attempts to restrict student housing by enforcing current codes and creating new ones.

Student have been most concerned with the clause that requires rental properties zoned as “student housing” to be more than 350 feet apart.

Rentals currently occupied by students would be “grandfathered” into the program, meaning that the ordinance would only impact houses that are not currently student rentals.

“Probably the number one complaint that my office receives, on a regular basis, is about student housing,” Benanav stated Monday night.

The councilman’s ward includes St. Thomas, Hamline and the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. Macalester does not fall within his ward. The proposed ordinance, however, would be city-wide.

Benanav went on to list excessive noise, party houses, over-occupancy, poorly maintained houses and yards, negligent absentee landlords, parking shortages, lack of community and an increased concentration of student housing in college neighborhoods as the most common student-housing related complaints made by neighbors.

“Ward four is blessed, and I mean that, is blessed, with more schools, colleges, than any other ward in the city,” Benanav said early in the forum. “What I hope will happen here, and ongoing, is that we’ll enter into dialogue and we will come up with a solution to a real issue.”

The councilman was met with a large degree of skepticism regarding his proposal for distance requirements when he grouped student housing into the same category as boarding houses and group homes. His statement that these regulations would be instituted in “the same way we have distance requirements for group homes in St. Paul, for adult foster homes, for rooming houses” created an air of tension that characterized the evening’s meeting.

Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Laurie Hamre expressed concern about Benanav’s proposal.

“This isn’t rocket science. Let’s not discriminate against students,” she said.

Members of the city’s Zoning, Planning and Economic Development and Code Enforcement Divisions, as well as two members of the St. Paul Fire Department joined Benanav on the stage at the forum.

Police Sergeant Eric Anderson, coordinator of the Zero Adult Providers (ZAP) program, was not able to attend and Benanav spoke on his behalf.

Each explained briefly their position and stake in the issue, fielding a small number of questions from the audience.

Planning and Economic Development spokeswoman Donna Drummond cautioned the students in attendance to approach this issue with an open mind and explained that the “problem students” are an acknowledged minority that, in all likelihood were not present at the forum.

Benanav echoed Drummond’s views. “It doesn’t take too many students to create a problem,” he said.

Following the officials’ presentations, Benanav asked that the group split into their respective constituencies (students, neighbors and landlords) to discuss possible compromises. After approximately half an hour, each group was asked to bring their ideas forward.

Benanav stayed in the lecture hall along with the student group, who bombarded the councilman with concerns. Most questions addressed what they perceived as being unfairly singled out by the ordinance.

“You may not intend to be targeting us,” one student said, “but that often feels like the case.”

Each of the groups expressed doubt that Benanav’s ordinance would be enforced, citing the city’s inability to follow up on current ordinances.

The most commonly suggested solution was a combination of increased communication between students and neighbors and better code enforcement by the city of St. Paul.

Benanav offered a message of hope for those pursuing changes in his resolution, saying “we will continue to move forward in finding a solution to this issue. And I know that everyone, everybody is looking for the same thing: high quality of life in our neighborhoods.”

Another frequently repeated idea was that the “[colleges and] universities have to be involved” in the regulation of student behavior. Some met this idea of increased burden on the schools with skepticism.

“We need to give students better information about questions to ask before renting,” Hamre said.

John Benson, a landlord and resident of St. Paul, brought an alternative solution to the proposed ordinance. In his proposal, a “Civilian Review Board” would be created, similar to one that is already in place in many cities, including Minneapolis. After an excessive number of complaints about a specific property, the landlord would be brought before a review board composed of homeowners, students, landlords, college officials and city employees. A series of punishments would ensue, potentially resulting in the loss of the ability to rent the property to students.

Other suggestions included strengthening law enforcement, lowering the number of unrelated adults that are allowed to live in a dwelling (currently restricted to four, but not tightly regulated) and instituting certificates of occupancy for rental properties.

A consensus seemed to be reached among both the neighbors and the students that Benanav’s proposed ordinance, in its current state, would not accomplish what Benanav hopes it will.

“Students shouldn’t be a scapegoat for a greater St. Paul problem,” said one neighbor. His comment was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Hamre said that better communication is needed between the students, the landlords and the neighbors. One more ordinance will do nothing to fix the problem, she said.