Trending
A "corporate housing" ordinance introduced this week by City Council is too restrictive to allow a proposed townhouse project to proceed, the developer said.
Randy Green wants to build townhomes in the central business district, then rent them room-by-room to short-term workers.
As currently worded, it would allow only businesses to rent the rooms for their employees, officers, consultants and those persons' family members, while, to make his project feasible, he needs to rent directly to individuals like agency nurses, Green said after the meeting.
The city worded its proposal cautiously to ensure against downtown properties rented by the room becoming problematic. Officials will now consider how to reconfigure the proposal so it can work for Green, yet still protect the city, said solicitor Tom Finn Wednesday.
One reason that ordinance amendments like the one proposed this week require an introduction one month, then adoption at a later meeting is to "get this kind of input" that Green -- and a commenter from the public this week -- provided, Finn said.
"We're going to take a look," Finn said. "It may require modification and reintroduction."
In his initial approach, Finn tried to be precise with language, he said.
"To find a balance between what (Green) is looking to do, while also being cognizant to concerns of people like (the commenter)," he said.
Allowing unrestricted rooming houses for short-term rentals could lead to business interests creating a "drug den" for "riff raff," the commenter said, citing situations he said he was aware of in big cities.
"Maybe it's all fine," the commenter said. "It just needs a look."
Rooming houses are actually legal elsewhere in Altoona, including a zone whose boundary is within 90 feet of where Green proposes to build his townhomes on the 1500 block of 13th Avenue, officials have said.
"We're not here to create any sort of slum or tricky way or sly way to have a building to house (problem tenants)," Green said.
His project will not create housing for "druggies" to crash, he said.
Rather, his partnership, Professional Housing Solutions, hopes to fulfill a growing need for people coming in for several months at a time who can't afford a full townhouse or apartment and can't afford an extended stay hotel, Green said.
His rates would be high enough to "cut out the riff raff," Green added.
Green has no objections to an ordinance that would limit rentals to those who could demonstrate a limited-time work commitment here, as he plans to vet applicants based on that anyway, he said.
But he can't build if only businesses can rent the rooms, because 80 percent of his tenants would be renting as individuals, he said.
At the urging of Councilman Bruce Kelley, Green listed the housing projects he's completed, including the former Brace & Limb and Standard Supply buildings
"We're familiar with the first-rate jobs you've done," Kelley said.
"There's no hidden agenda," Green said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.