As university students flood Towson for the fall semester starting Monday, community activists are renewing their calls for tighter regulations on apartment occupancy and more code inspectors to enforce other laws.
Baltimore County officials this week are meeting with community and college leaders to request their help in enforcing the county?s cap of two unrelated occupants per boarding house. The law exempts apartment buildings, so officials are asking managers to control the number of students in units near colleges, according to a county-issued news release.
The release quoted Rodgers Forge activist Don Gerding on his support for the effort but didn?t mention his concern with unregulated apartment occupancy, he said.
“I really, firmly believe the whole issue needs to be examined very carefully and redesigned,” Gerding said. “I think we need to get some alignment on how many people can occupy an apartment.”
Activists said demand for off-campus student housing and increasing Towson University enrollment is encroaching upon quiet family neighborhoods. But government officials have previously said blanket restrictions would unfairly affect landlords in parts of the county without complaints. Property managers understand it?s in their best interest to self-regulate, county spokesman Don Mohler said.
The county?s zoning commissioner in March ordered a Towson landlord to evict half of his boarding-house tenants. Alex Sulakvelidze was renting his home on Garden and Knollwood roads ? two more than the county permits ? and has appealed thedecision.
Activist Ed Kilcullen said area colleges and universities can help prevent code violations in the first place.
“The simple act of requiring local addresses for all students living off-campus would give the schools the ability to cross-check addresses for more than two students living at any address,” Kilcullen said.
