Months ago, Lawrence city commissioners approved an increase to the number of adults who can live in a home in most areas of town. With two weeks left before the change is set to take effect, some neighborhoods are pushing back. 

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. Yet when commissioners approved the code in November, many community members said they felt the process had moved too quickly. 

The code aims, among other things, to improve affordability and availability of housing. One way the code intends to do that is by increasing the occupancy limit in some neighborhoods from three to five unrelated people who can live in a home together. 

Some neighborhood groups are saying the code change will have the opposite effect, and they’re asking the commission to keep the cutoff at three. Others in the community say that lower occupancy limits are rooted in classism and racism, and that they hurt people’s chances of affording housing and prospering. 

Maren Bradley, president of the Old West Lawrence Association, said she and her neighbors are pro-affordable housing, and that there’s a lot of good things in the new land development code that they’re not opposing. 

However, they are opposed to the planned increase in occupancy limits, and they’re pushing for the commission to undo that change before it happens. 

Old West Lawrence spans roughly from Sixth Street south to Ninth Street, and from Michigan Street east to the alley east of Kentucky Street. It’s a fairly short walk to the University of Kansas, and it’s on bus routes to campus. 

OWLA has cited a meta-analysis published last year that discussed the “studentification” of neighborhoods in university towns. Bradley said OWLA is concerned that higher occupancy limits could take away affordable options for long-term renters. In addition, she said, KU students have the option of on-campus housing that other potential renters do not. 

From July 2024 through last week, 17 homes in the OWL neighborhood sold — four of those to companies, according to county real estate transaction records.

At least two homes in the neighborhood were listed for rent as of Monday afternoon — one for $3,000 per month, and one for $2,700 whose listing does not leave its target tenant to the imagination: “KU Students – gather your friends and jump on this opportunity … be the envy of your friend group with one of the coolest houses off-campus.”

Bradley said OWLA would “guarantee you, (the home sales are) in anticipation of the land development code changes.” That $3,000-per-month rent split among five people, once the higher occupancy limit goes into effect, would make rent just $600 per person. If a family with two working adults wanted to rent that house, they’d need an income of at least $120,000 per year to not be cost-burdened by that rent, making it out of reach for many. 

City commissioners as of Monday afternoon had received about 20 written public comments in favor of lower occupancy limits and half a dozen in favor of increasing or eliminating occupancy limits. They also received about 30 nearly identical comments from a template, encouraging them to revert occupancy limits to three unrelated adults. 

Representatives of the East Lawrence, Hillcrest, Brook Creek, Sunset Hill, Pinkney, University Heights/Raintree and Centennial neighborhood associations as well as the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods wrote in favor of limits of three or four unrelated people. Three of their comments cited the concern of homes being converted to “luxury student rentals” by out-of-town investment groups.

On the other hand, some folks who support increasing the occupancy limit say student rentals should be expected in a college town. 

“I strongly believe that you should expect certain conditions in your neighborhood of choice; conditions that you learn about through living there or through your realtor,” said Nick Kuzmyak, an environmental engineer who has worked as a realtor and who served as a member of the land development code steering committee. “I expected to hear ambulances in Pinkney (near LMH Health), and one should expect high schoolers near (Lawrence High School). If college student rentals are bothersome, consider a neighborhood that’s not adjacent to the largest university in Kansas.”

Some are also concerned about who would be most affected by lower limits. A group of housing advocates wrote in a guest column submitted to the Times that “Workers, seniors, immigrant families, and those of varying documentation status — already squeezed by rising rents and stagnant wages — will bear the brunt of this regressive policy.”

When more people are allowed to live together, they can pool resources and implement vital survival strategies, the advocates wrote; but “Occupancy caps effectively criminalize mutual aid, making it harder for people to meet basic needs.” 

The change would affect lower-density neighborhoods in town, which are often home to the largest houses. Kuzmyak said there’s an underlying implication he’s seen in this conversation.

“When someone says ‘this will deplete housing’ or ‘housing will become more expensive’, what they really mean is that the type of housing they prefer will become more expensive, because the blanket statement doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” he said via email. “This is the age-old American bias that the only good kind of housing is fee simple property ownership, and that renters don’t offer anything other than parking congestion and messy yards. It’s rooted in racism and classism – as is much of American history – and people get super defensive when this is brought up. No one wants to think of themselves as exclusionary or biased.”

Some neighborhoods further away from campus are zoned the same way as OWL and will have the same occupancy limits in place when the new code goes into effect. Bradley said OWLA has had multiple conversations with the city, and “They are not interested in separating out the different parts of the city — you know, university-adjacent or downtown, east or west of Iowa — they are not interested in making that stipulation,” Bradley said. 

She said it would be nice for neighborhoods that aren’t as attractive to student renters to be able to offer higher occupancy “in their toolbox” as well. “But as it stands, they’re making us choose, and so within the scope of me being a representative of this neighborhood, that’s the choice that I have to go with.”

Kuzmyak said that “I think there’s a case to be made for some neighborhoods having exceptions to various LDC rules, but this isn’t one I’d support.” 

Lawrence community member Chris Flowers wrote a letter to the Times about this issue, stating that “The majority of the town are renters, so policies that increase rent are polices that financially hurt the majority of the population.” He also noted that “Our three-person occupancy limit would not allow the Golden Girls to live together” — a fictional example, but a living arrangement that may be practical for older people in town living with fixed incomes.

Lawrence city commissioners are set to begin their regular meeting at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, March 18 at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. See the full meeting agenda at this link.

If commissioners vote in favor of the agenda item, occupancy limits will go down to three unrelated adults for large portions of the city. If they vote against it, the limits will increase to five as planned when the code becomes effective on April 1. 

The commission accepts written public comment emailed to ccagendas@lawrenceks.org until noon the day of meetings. The commission also hears live public comment during meetings, both in person and virtually. Register to join the Zoom meeting at this link.

Meetings are open to the public, livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@lawrenceksvideo and broadcast on Midco channel 25.

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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