With approval from the East Lansing City Council, permanent residents can ban or restrict new rental housing in their neighborhood.
Under an ordinance passed last spring, neighborhoods can petition to have districts created to their specifications.
"It provides an opportunity for neighborhoods around the city that basically want to maintain their ownership and rental patterns," said Bob Owen, East Lansing assistant director of planning and community development
"It would severely limit the creation of new rentals in the areas that it would be adopted for."
Although the law does not affect existing rentals, it could wipe an area clean of renters during an extended period of time.
"It limits the growth of one segment of our housing market to basically preserve another part of it," Owen said. "If there are new rentals, they will be going somewhere else."
Recently granted one of the most flexible plans under the policy, the Brookfield Heritage Neighborhood is currently the only group in the city to have an overlay district in place.
"We felt that we should go for the least restrictive of the overlay districts," said Nancy Nelson Knupfer, president of the Brookfield Heritage Neighborhood Association. "There should be enough flexibility for people to do what they want to their own properties."
Because Brookfield Heritage residents have the option of renting a room out, Knupfer said that gives students and residents the opportunity to learn and grow from each other.
"If a student lives with a senior, there is inter-generation communication going on," she said. "I see it as way that people can help each other."
Although some view the ordinance as a positive change, others said it will have a detrimental effect on renters.
"It probably negatively impacts renters," rental property owner Donna Clarizio said. "Any time you limit the amount of houses that are available, it is going to make it harder for a person looking to rent."
Many reasons exist for the city's concern regarding rental properties. The declining population of younger families with school-age children is among them, Knupfer said.
"There has been some major concern about the exodus of families from the city," she said. "The city has said they want to preserve property values by feeding families into the school district."
In addition to the city citing renters as a cause of the drop in the number of children enrolled in the district, it claims renters have caused trouble.
"Statistically, I think that holds up," Owen said. "If you run all the numbers for litter, noise and parking violations, the preponderance of those activities involve rental properties.
Despite the reasons for the implementation of the rental restrictions, Owen said it was not meant to control the actions of renters.
