Overcrowding makes committee agenda

Like with the previous agenda item regarding day laborers and loitering, Vice Mayor Billy Yowell didn't know how the item "excessive occupancy" got on Wednesday's Ordinance Committee agenda.

"Why is this on there-" he asked. "I want to see where this is coming from."

Indirectly, the "too many people living in one house" issue originated at the Public Safety Committee level, then was referred to the Ordinance Committee for further consideration.

Directly, both the day laborer and residential overcrowding issues originated with Town Councilman Steve Jenkins, who believes the town should more aggressively enforce zoning laws as it relates to unrelated people living together.

But this time, the Ordinance Committee would take no action, though there was some talk on the matter.

Last year, the town received about 25 complaints of residential overcrowding and each was "run through the process," Town Engineer Chuck Stephenson, who directs the town's planning department, said at Wednesday's meeting. The town's final step in investigating overcrowding complaints requires tenants and/or landlords to swear in a signed affidavit that everyone living in the house is related.

To go beyond that, Stephenson said of attempting to verify a person's birth records or establish blood relationship some other way, would be "a time-consuming and expensive process."

"(Town Attorney) Bob Bendall believes our current policy to stop at the affidavit point is as far as we can legally and feasibly go," Stephenson said.

The town also does not seek out overcrowding infractions, he added, but operates from a "reactive" - responding to complaints - rather than a "proactive" standpoint, as directed by Town Council.

Jenkins preferred the latter and mentioned how other localities have their zoning enforcers ride along with police officers to view and enforce residential zoning infractions when police, for example, respond to domestic violence calls. He also supported hiring another person to specifically deal with zoning complaints, such as overcrowding.

Yowell dismissed that idea.

"Twenty-five complaints in a year doesn't justify hiring another person or riding along with police," he said.

Stephenson said his department - considering the downturn in residential growth - is amply staffed to deal with the current number of zoning complaints and that another employee is not needed for that purpose.

"Bob (Bendall) says what we are doing is really as far as we should be going," he said. "If people turn out to be related, we can't do anything about it."

Yowell said fire code regulations that specify how many people can safely live in a certain space are the right way to deal with residential overcrowding cases.

Unfortunately, said Stephenson, new building codes set to be adopted this spring will likely lose their teeth on that matter if the state, as expected, removes the part regulating square footage and the corresponding number of occupants.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or abrophy@ starexponent.com.