Small steps taken for new housing proposal

By Brooke McCloud

The definition of a student house has to be established before any actions are taken on the current housing proposal.

The Urban County Council’s Planning Committee continued discussions on a new off-campus proposal called the Student Housing in Partnership Program. Lexington Police Officer Keith Gaines originally presented the proposal on Oct. 20.

On Tuesday’s meeting, the committee included discussions of how to define fraternity and sorority off-campus properties.

“I think the problem is not with the affiliated houses on campus but that a large group of members move in and title the property as a ‘party house,’ ” said the director of the LFUCG Division of Code Enforcement, David Jarvis.

The council agreed that they needed a clear definition of a fraternity or a sorority in order to move forward.

“This is a very complex issue,” said 5th District councilwoman Cheryl B. Feigel. “(Because) three nice sorority girls could rent out an apartment, or three fraternity boys could be the best tenants in a neighborhood.”

No final decisions were made because of the absence of an unspecified representative of UK Greek Affairs due to a Board of Trustees meeting. The representative will be in attendance at the next council meeting.

Gaines, creator of the SHIPP pilot program, said a solution to the problem is to not allow some activity in certain zones.

Jarvis wants to include places like Big Bear Lane as a part of the “effective neighborhoods” due to its heavily student population, even though it is not in the UK area.

“I would suggest you would informally label some streets as university housing, so those who don’t want to live that type of lifestyle know not to live there,” said Anthony Humphress, alumni adviser for Greek InterVarsity.

The council agreed the language in the proposal needed to be revised and edited for clarification.

“I think that we could dance and dance around this,” said 10th District councilman Doug Martin. “We as a council need to get to the crux of what belongs in a single family neighborhood.”

The council passed a motion to increase the task force’s budget 100 percent to $200,000.  The budget increase is a big step toward SHIPP going into effect, Jarvis said.

“We’ve tried to come up with the money in years in the past, we need the budget increase so we can do the sweeps in the effective neighborhoods,” Jarvis said.

If SHIPP goes into effect there will be regular comprehensive sweeps done by the task force four to five times a year, Jarvis said. The council allotted the Student Housing Task Force the extra money due to the potential revenue they saw in the program.

“We’re going to get that money back more than likely,” said 6th District councilman Kevin Stinnett.

The majority of the budget will go toward staffing that will increase enforcement and civil penalties, Jarvis said.  The fines will help create the revenue.