(KNSI) – A new rental density ordinance passed at the Sauk Rapids City Council Monday night over the objections of nine people who spoke out against it.
Eight of those were realtors, and one of the conditions of the measure getting approval was to have staff consider their suggestions moving forward. Community Development Director Todd Schultz explains.
“The Council encouraged staff, or directed staff, more specifically, to sit down with some representatives from the area realtors association and kind of talk through and discuss some of the concerns that they may have about this ordinance, and some suggestions that they may have.”
Schultz says there were two other facets of the issue that still need to be tackled anyway, so bringing the realtors in as a quasi-working group is feasible. Staff will be looking at VRBOs. He notes there are only a couple of those in the entire city. Another thorn is how to define a block, especially in areas where wetlands affect how the streets are laid out.
“Where you move into areas where you have things that are kind of in the way of how you develop blocks, it forces streets to then become irregular. They’re not straight or linear anymore. Because of that, we end up with blocks that may potentially have 100 homes in them, as opposed to a more typical six or 10.”
The measure would cap the number of rental properties at 15% of any given block. Right now, only five are above that number, and another 19 are at it. This means no new licenses would be given until a rental home is converted into a traditional single-family unit.
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