San Diego City officials could soon change San Diego State students’ lives – and students haven’t spoken up.
SDSU’s College Area has been a problem for some non-student residents, and they want a change.
At the Land Use and Planning Committee meeting on Nov. 29, San Diego City Council members, attorneys, residents of the College Area and Neighborhood Code Compliance representatives, among others, discussed how to make the living environment tolerable among college students and other residents.
Almost every party who is involved in this issue was present, except the students.
Therefore, the meeting consisted of officials discussing ways to change the College Area so that non-student residents are no longer bothered by their unruly neighbors who, residents said, usually live in mini dorms, or “nuisance rental properties,” which are houses where several students or other renters live and create excessive amounts of noise, parking problems and trash.
In his opening statements at the meeting, San Diego City Councilman Jim Madaffer, chair of the Land Use and Planning Committee, said, “It is my hope that today will serve as a starting point toward meaningful changes ? figuring out ways that we can take other cities and what they’ve done with their laws. And without trying to reinvent the wheel, figure out ways that we can improve the quality of life in San Diego.”
One of Madaffer’s 12 recommendations for changing the College Area is to require that if a garage is used as a bedroom, then there must be another enclosed garage space built.
Sheri Carr, the deputy director of Neighborhood Code Compliance, said that three investigators currently work in the College Area on changing nuisance homes. Carr estimated there are between 50 to 75 nuisance homes in the area.
Nuisance homes occasionally do include the garage-to-bedroom conversion problem.
“Some of the conditions include that there’s no heat in the portion of the structure that’s been modified and it’s also been modified so that it does not provide adequate light and air or ventilation or proper exits,” Carr said.
She emphasized the fire hazard that can be present if the electrical wiring to the added room is not properly done.
Carr sends investigators into nuisance areas if citizens call the police and report problems to the Neighborhood Code Compliance. If the investigator finds a problem with the house, they can order the residents or landowners to change its appearance, structure, etc.
The living situation of six SDSU students is changing because of neighborhood complaints such as the appearance of the outside of the house, parking and bedrooms not up to code.
Stephen Delizo lives with six of his friends in the College Area. The home they rent was originally a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house that is now a six-bedroom two-bathroom house. The garage has been rented out as a “bedroom” for years – until now.
“We got a letter a few weeks ago from the city because the police received too many complaints from our neighbors about a problem with the parking situation,” Delizo said. “Too many of our residents living in the house had cars and we didn’t have enough parking spots to accommodate all of us.
“So we were parking two cars in the driveway, which is only meant for one car. Some of our neighbors complained and we got a complaint from the city saying that to accommodate more cars for our housemates, our landlord would have to turn our garage back from a bedroom.”
Delizo said the letter from the city gave them a short deadline to convert the room back into a garage, and Delizo’s landlord is currently in the process of doing so.
“I think when the previous landlords owned the house when they were adding extensions to make more room, I think a lot of the additions to the house weren’t legit,” Delizo said. “That’s part of what the letter said, that it wasn’t city regulation.
“There’s some bad stuff we found (in the house) last year with electricity and wires running through the house. I think basically the (previous) landlord at the time wanted to put together a house so that he could make more housing for students, but he didn’t really prepare it as well as he should have.”
Madaffer said the Paseo Project needs to be built and there should be more housing for students to help solve this problem.
Media Relations Director Jason Foster said the SDSU administration is working on revamping the campus Master Plan (SDSU withdrew the last Master Plan after the California Supreme Court established a new CSU requirement that wasn’t in the original plan) and hopes to present it before the California State University board of trustees in late 2007.
The new plan would include more student housing – about 1,000 beds for students rather than the 300 that was originally proposed – and faculty and graduate student housing in the Adobe Falls area north of Interstate 8 off College Avenue.
Foster said the plan would be implemented over the 20 years after its approval date – if it’s approved – and would alleviate impaction in the College Area
Madaffer said there will be another Land Use and Housing Committee meeting, which is open to the public, in February 2007, and these issues will be further discussed.
“Specifically in the College Area ? that’s really become a quality of life issue that the city of San Diego owes it to these property owners to solve,” Madaffer said at the meeting.
