Ordinance needs revamp

The city of Bloomington recently tried to pass an ordinance that makes it illegal for more than three unrelated adults to live together in the areas of Bryan Park, McDoel Gardens and Green Acres. The courts have ruled the ordinance as discriminatory and therefore, unconstitutional. The goals of the ordinance are unclear. Some Bloomington residents defend the ordinance as one that controls growth within those regions. We feel the ordinance, as it is written, will not control growth as much as protect property values and residents' peace of mind. While protecting the current residents is not a bad thing, the ordinance tries to accomplish this by singling out groups that would live together as three or more unrelated adults. This is discriminatory. The targeted group of such an ordinance would be students. The stretch of the ordinance is too broad as it is written because it would also forbid non-conventional families from living in these neighborhoods. The plan is flawed, not just in that it is discriminatory, but because there are plenty of loopholes for landlords to abuse if they wish. A common solution landlords use against these kinds of ordinances is to turn the house in question into a duplex -- this would lower the property value of the house, and it would be a completely legal way to house more than three unrelated adults in a single house. Another way around the ordinance is for landlords to rent the house to a group or groups of siblings. Though improbable, if a landlord wished to rent a house in these areas to, say, a group of septuplets, it would be completely legal way of housing more than three adults in a single house. If the real goal is to keep a large number of students from living in a single house, the city could raise prices on parking permits after the first two permits are issued to a house. The City could create restrictions based on a less discriminating factor, such as square feet of a house or utilities. Another way would be to offer an incentive to landlords to take better care of their properties. No matter what the solution may be, the current proposal crosses the boundaries of acceptability.