The city Zoning Hearing Board granted a special exception Wednesday for a student house on the 2300 block of First Street in Fairview, in a single-household residential zone.

Neighbors expressed concerns about parking and potential rowdiness, but applicants are entitled to that special exception if they meet criteria that include the property being at least 250 feet from the nearest student home and there are at least two off-street parking spaces — criteria that owners Jim and Allison Kimmel of West Newton can meet.

Allison Kimmel assured neighbors that she intends for her son and his two or three roommates to conduct themselves in a way that won’t cause them problems, even as she has been providing her and her son’s phone numbers so the neighbors can report any issues.

“We don’t want our house to be the party house,” Allison Kimmel said. “We’re committed to be a good neighbor.”

College students had occupied the house previously, and the neighbors’ experience with it wasn’t ideal, their testimony indicated.

“It’s a quiet, peaceful neighborhood, and we’d like to keep it that way,” said Anita Conte-Schultz, who has lived there 28 years.

Parking is the main potential problem, according to neighbor Robin Harvey.

There should be enough of it, however, because not only will there be the required two off-street spaces — one in a garage, and one in a pad the Kimmels plan to construct — but there are also two spaces on the street in front of the house and spaces on the street in front of a nearby vacant lot, according to Kimmel.

Still, she’ll warn her son and his roommates to be sensitive to the parking issue, she said.

There are three bedrooms in the house, one of which is big, which may allow for a fourth student to live at the house, Kimmel said.

The city’s rental inspection team will let her know whether three or four will be permitted, officials said.

If the neighbors have issues with how the students behave or how the house is run, they should take advantage of the phone numbers the family is providing, and if that doesn’t work, they should call police, said board solicitor Bill Stokan.

If the neighbors believe that student homes shouldn’t be permitted at all in single-household residential zones like theirs, they should take that argument to City Council, which alone has the power to change the rules, Stokan said.

But three or four students in one house, each with a vehicle, might not have an effect on the neighborhood much different than large family with multiple drivers, Kimmel and Stokan said.

The Kimmel family plans to keep the home as a student rental investment after their son graduates from Penn State Altoona, if they can be confident of finding someone like their son to be responsible for keeping things orderly, Kimmel said.

Otherwise, they would sell the house, Kimmel said.

As long as the use doesn’t lapse for more than a year, the student rental license that is required to operate the house would remain valid.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.