After a three-year legal battle, Syracuse officials are approving dozens of landlords’ applications to rent out buildings near Syracuse University. A group of landlords sued the city over a 2007 law that restricted conversion of houses in the Syracuse University area to rental property by mandating a parking space for every bedroom in the house. The landlords won in 2008,...
After a three-year legal battle, Syracuse officials are approving dozens of landlords’ applications to rent out buildings near Syracuse University.
A group of landlords sued the city over a 2007 law that restricted conversion of houses in the Syracuse University area to rental property by mandating a parking space for every bedroom in the house. The landlords won in 2008, but the city sought an appeal and continued to delay the landlords’ applications while the matter remained in court.
But the city has lost its final attempt to overturn the original decision — which declared the 2007 law invalid. A state Supreme Court judge ruled the city had not properly followed environmental review procedure.
“There were about 100 pending applications with the Planning Commission,” said Corporation Counsel Juanita Perez Williams.
City officials are reviewing the applications one at a time. If the applications were complete and met the old terms to become rental property, they were recommended for approval, she said. The past rules, from 1992, required one parking space per rental unit.
The Planning Commission has approved 22 of the pending applications so far, and likely will pass as many or more at its meeting 6 p.m. today, Perez Williams said.
In June, the Common Council reaffirmed the 2007 legislation by passing it again with a complete environmental review, Perez Williams said. So, new applications are being determined based on the more rigid parking rules, she said.
The city law office is recommending the Planning Commission grant some exceptions to the law by using variances for those with special circumstances, such as owners who have rented property for years but didn’t know about the requirement for a “certificate of suitability.”
The certificates for new rental property are required in the special neighborhood district that borders Syracuse University, but they were not aggressively enforced by the city in the past.
The South East University Neighborhood Association supports the new parking space rules, which make it difficult to convert more owner-occupied homes into rental property.
SU-area landlords have suggested they may sue the city again over the law passed in June.
--Contact Meghan Rubado at mrubado@syracuse.com or 470-3260.