The Boston City Council’s ‘No More Than Four’ regulation has met with several opponents since it was first passed, but Boston-area college students continue to question its methods and effectiveness.
In March 2008, the Boston Zoning Commission and the Boston Redevelopment Authority unanimously approved a new city regulation that limits the number of undergraduate college students that can share an apartment in Boston, which includes Allston Village but not Brookline, to four.
Boston area universities are required to release a report every semester that states the number of students living off-campus by zip code, which is a resource for the council to find violators of the regulation. The main discovery mode is complaints, but these were scant in the first semester of the law being in full effect, after the grace period for leases signed before the law was passed to rectify their situations ended Sept. 1.
Boston City Council representatives said the intentions of the regulation are to curb escalating home values and prevent rowdiness. During a visit to Boston University in October, City Council President Michael Ross, who first proposed the bill, said the purpose of the regulation is to prevent overcrowding and poor living conditions caused by converted units or too many students.
Opponents of the regulation include property owners and college students who say that the occupancy limit violates property rights and unfairly singles out a specific group of people. They also claim that it violates several specific Boston laws including one banning rent control.
Supporters of the regulation include neighborhood groups, colleges and city leaders who complain about loud parties. They claim that the restriction will prevent landlords from turning homes into multi-bedroom apartments and charging more rent from a larger number of students in a less amount of space.
Boston Small Property Owners Association representative Skip Schloming said most people who are being negatively affected by the regulation will not take up legal action because of fear that their property rights will be revoked.
‘No one wants to come out because everyone is afraid of being targeted,’ he said. ‘They want to use a landlord on the verge of retiring so if he gets targeted, that’s just his retirement.
In a press conference, Ross said he is confident of the legality of the regulation and is not intimidated by any legal action that could be taken against it.
‘I feel that we are on solid legal footing,’ he said. ‘Similar zoning is in place across the country and I think that this is standard zoning.’
During Ross’ visit to BU, he said permanent residents were being driven out of the city after losing their homes due to the influx of out-of-state students into Boston-area universities. He said landlords intentionally increase the occupancy capacity of their properties and rent them to students who are willing to pay more than regular residents.
Ross said he doesn’t intend to discriminate against students because they are positive assets for the communities they inhabit by reporting crimes at times when regular residents aren’t generally awake.
School of Education graduate student Christina Martinez called the policy ‘ridiculous.’
‘It’s unfair for the authorities to blame the noise solely on college students, and it sounds like a big violation of privacy,’ she said. ‘What are they going to do? Knock on every apartment door and survey the amount of beds in every property?’
‘I don’t think it is possible for them to find every person who is violating it anyway,’ College of Arts and Sciences junior Yi Lin said. ‘It seems like they are discriminating against college students alone when there are probably other groups of people who are violating it too.’
Emerson College sophomore Ben Willis lives in a two-bedroom Allston apartment with four of his friends. He said they don’t throw any parties to avoid complaints from neighbors and possibly even stricter action against them.
Willis said’ the regulation is unfair because its methods of discovery are unclear and patchy.
‘It’s not fair because there’s no way they can find every single apartment that is in violation of the policy,’ he said. ‘If they target one landlord or set of students, they would have to do the same to everyone.’
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