Union Township may tweak rental rules

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Union Township landlords soon might have a way to put more than three adults into rentals in some residential neighborhoods ? but it would take township approval.

Outside of areas specifically zoned for student-type rentals, the township limits occupancy of rental units to three people. But Union Township?s recent foray into inspecting rental units uncovered a number of cases where more than three adults were sharing the same address.

?The rental inspectors were finding lots of occupancies of four or five people,? said township zoning administrator Woody Woodruff.

Most had been like that for a long time and didn?t bother the neighbors. All but one got variances from the township?s zoning board of appeals to continue.

?We?ve had over-occupancies for 15 years,?Woodruff said. ?We?re doing the ordinance now because we have an enforcement mechanism.?

The township?s planning commission is looking toward creating a system that would be based on the township?s existing definition of family, the existing definition of something called a ?rooming dwelling,? and the township?s special use permit process.

??Family? definitions were shaken up 15 or 20 years ago,? Woodruff said. ?Ours is broad enough to be inclusive.?

A ?rooming dwelling? is defined as a place that has a family, plus another two unrelated adults.

?It?s been in there forever,? Woodruff told members of the planning commission. ?But there was no mechanism for approving one. There was no zoning district where they were permitted.?

Now, township attorneys will try to draft a proposed ordinance that would allow those two unrelated adults to live in a rented house or apartment with a defined family, if the planning commission OKs a special use permit. A formal approval process would be involved, and the property owner would have to prove that it wouldn?t detract from the surrounding neighborhood.

These special use permits would be allowed in agricultural areas, as well as in areas with the specific residential zoning of R2A and R2B, which permit single-family homes and duplexes.

?This doesn?t take anything that?s not now in violation, and put it into violation,? said Planning Commission Chairman Phil Squattrito.

Planners don?t expect the new rules to be ready by the time students begin moving back for fall semester at Central Michigan University.

Mark Ranzenberger is online editor of TheMorningSun.com. Follow his Touts @ranzenberger.

Source: http://www.themorningsun.com/article/20130717/NEWS01/130719659/union-township-may-tweak-rental-rules

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