Zoning change and occupancy limits

[olszowka.livejournal.com]

Recently, I received a letter in the mail from Neraj Tuli of Zone Smart Somerville (www.zonesmartsomerville.org).  The letter was urging me to oppose a provision in the proposed zoning changes which would prohibit occupancy of a house or unit by more than four unrelated adults regardless of the size of the house or unit or other mitigating factors.  Does anyone know anything about this?  I believe I am opposed to this provision, but would like to learn more.

Comments

RE: Jinkies!

[avjudge]

I believe the maximum-4-unrelated-residents rule is newish, though maybe it's the enforcement that's new. (I recall reading about Somerville getting a list of student addresses from Tufts so it could be enforced.) It's definitely aimed at student apartments, not houses of ill repute - or maybe student houses are the new houses of ill repute, in the literal (not euphemistic) sense of the phrase.

RE: Jinkies!

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I went through the process about a dozen years ago to rezone my 2 family to a 3 (didn't work). City officials brought up the "no more than 4 unrelated persons" restriction to me more than a couple of times. It's been there for a long while, though I'm sure it's difficult to enforce (except that much of this information is provided via the city census).

I got the feeling they were more interested in the "zoned as a 2 family, used as a 3 or 4 family" issues than enforcing this one. But I've always been careful to keep my leases to 4 individuals, even though the unit could hold 5-6 bedrooms.