Post last updated at 10:17 p.m. Tuesday, March 18:
Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday voted to change occupancy limits to allow a maximum of four unrelated adults per household in the least dense areas of town, and a maximum of five in the rest of town.
The city’s new land development code was created over a two-plus-year process, with a 14-member steering committee and several public meetings. Commissioners approved it in November, and it’s set to go into effect in April.
The code aims, among other things, to improve affordability and availability of housing. One way it intended to do that was by increasing the occupancy limit in some neighborhoods from three to five unrelated adults who can live in a home together.
But some neighborhood groups pushed back and asked for that limit to be decreased back to three, and planning commissioners voted last month to recommend reverting the limit to three.
Based on the commission’s action on Tuesday, the limit on the number of unrelated adults who can live in one home will increase to four in the R-1 and R-2 zoning districts — the two least densely zoned areas of town in the new code — and to five in all other areas of town zoned for residential uses.
Commissioners heard from 34 members of the public, about two-thirds of whom were in favor of higher occupancy limits or eliminating limits altogether. Some shared personal experiences they’ve had, saying they’ve faced discrimination and challenges finding housing because of the people living with them.
Misty Bosch-Hastings is the city’s homeless solutions division director, but she spoke as a community member on Tuesday.
“As someone who grew up in a doubled-up household oftentimes and has opened my own home to friends with families in crisis, I know firsthand how essential these arrangements are,” Bosch-Hastings said. “Many families rely on the ability of to be able to stay with friends when facing financial hardships, evictions or other emergencies. If the occupancy limit is lowered, I feel like we are risk of pushing more families with it, with children into homelessness.”
Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei said obviously the issue had a lot of people talking on both sides, and he thought it was important to discuss, make a decision and move forward. Finkeldei was on the land development code steering committee, and he said he supported increasing the limit to five.
Commissioner Amber Sellers was in favor of increasing the limit to five. She spoke about several concerns community members had raised.
Sellers said housing policies are not made to benefit people — they’re all about developers. She reiterated a point she made in November that this code is “our first step to putting people first in policy.” She pointed out that the Kansas Legislature has limited the commission’s options with regard to affordable housing. The commission can’t initiate rent control, and it can’t require developers to build affordable housing.
Sellers said there are a lot of other options the city should be looking at — more cooperative housing, rent-to-own housing and shared equity ownership as some examples. In addition, she said the commission wants to hold the University of Kansas accountable and bring them to the table to talk about student housing and their policy around freshmen living on campus. For now, though, she supported increasing occupancy to five all across town.
“Let’s just try to do it and figure it out on the back end, instead of trying to preempt us from doing something that really could turn out to be what this community needs,” she said.
Commissioner Bart Littlejohn said he’d like to see occupancy limits at four, optimally. He said he would not vote in favor of increasing the limit to five.
Commissioner Lisa Larsen said in the past, she’s been a supporter of limiting the number of people in a household.
“But over the past several years, we’ve just had so many issues with housing, affordable housing,” she said. “… I know there’s some debate as to whether it’s — if you allow more people, if it’s going to be more affordable — it’s hard to say, but I believe that I think we need to ease up on on the number of people that can be in a household.”
Mayor Mike Dever said he was excited to see the limit increase to five in the land development code, and he believed it was a way for the community to grow and become more affordable. He said he was “willing to live with some unintended consequences from this, and be willing to change back to a lower number if it’s if there’s some negative repercussions.”
He was, however, willing to compromise.
Ultimately, the commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of the compromise. They needed at least a 4-1 vote in order to override the recommendation of the planning commission. Sellers was opposed.
Note: This post has been corrected from a previous version.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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