The City of Bowling Green, in northwest Ohio (home of Bowling Green University) is facing a lawsuit from a group of individuals, their landlord, and additional 20 local landlords over zoning restrictions that limit the number of unrelated individuals allowed to occupy a home. According to the Toledo Blade, multiple police calls to the plaintiff’s property caught the attention of the city’s zoning office, which then began an investigation. In addition, there is homeowner’s group concerned about further so-called degradation of property values which they say has lost $54 million in value because of the disproportionate number of students living in the area. It comes down to some of the frictions found in any college town between full-time residents and students.
“When we moved in we had no idea that we would run into any issues,” Mr. Kuczma said. “It really just seems like the city of BG is anti-student, by giving us these unnecessary problems along with receiving several costly tickets for small gatherings at our house.”
Commenting about the occupant restrictions, Anna Mills, President of the REIA of Toledo and past-president of National REIA, told the Toledo Blade:
That can be addressed in different way that does not put the burden of figuring out who is or is not related squarely on a landlord, said Anna Mills, the president of the Toledo Real Estate Investors Association and past president of the national REIA.
Of the 65 properties she owns, less than one-third are occupied by the sort of traditional blood-family with a shared last name. The number of nuclear families broken up by drug addiction are rising, she said. So while everyone in a home is related, not having matching last names makes it hard to tell who is or is not related.
