Boston University and its students were at the forefront of a City Council meeting as members discussed the city’s undergraduate housing limitation and the BioSafety Level-4 lab under construction on Wednesday.
City Council President Mike Ross (Backbay, Fenway, Kenmore) proposed an ordinance that will increase the enforcement of a law that prohibits more than four unrelated undergraduates from living together. Ross co-sponsored the restriction, which was approved by the Zoning Board in March 2008.
If passed, the council’s proposal will require universities to submit the names of students who violate the law to the Boston Inspectional Service Department, which enforces housing regulations.
‘What I’m proposing is a law where institutions through existing tallies will determine whether their students are breaking a law,’ Ross said.
‘Colleges already must figure out where their students live’ and are required to come up with charts representing this data every six months, Ross’s Chief of Staff Reuben Kantor said in an interview with The Daily Free Press.
As of 2004, universities must file a ‘University Accountability Report’ that has the number of students, and the number of students that live on and off-campus, according to the City of Boston website. This new ordinance will take the 2004 enforcement further by requiring schools to submit actual violator names.
If universities do not submit information regarding students’ whereabouts, the ISD has no idea how many students are living in an apartment or house, Kantor said.
‘Colleges already have to figure out where their students live,’ Kantor said. ‘Now they [universities] must do something with it.’
If the ordinance passes, universities would have to go through the accountability reports to find names of students who share the same address with more than three of their peers, and report it to the ISD.
Ross raised concerns that without the implementation of this law, some of Boston’s residential neighborhoods will be turned into ‘extensions of college campuses.’
Boston’s neighborhoods ‘should be for everyone,’ he said.
Kantor said landlords break up homes into smaller units, and ‘have been cramming students in and charging them ridiculous amounts of rent.’
As a result of this practice, property taxes have increased in some Boston’s neighborhoods, such as Mission Hill, forcing some residents to relocate.
‘People who have been there for 25 or 30 years suddenly can’t afford to stay there because the value of surrounding homes is increasing to levels they can’t sustain,’ Kantor said.’
The council also discussed the Biolab under construction at the BU Medical Campus, which would house level-4 pathogens like Eboli.
Councilor Chuck Turner (Roxbury, Dorchester) asked for a hearing in the future with officials from the Boston Public Health Commission and BU to make sure both parties are on the same page, regarding the lab’s purpose.
‘There is confusion that on one hand Boston Public Health says there will not be rDNA [experiments] going on in a BSL-4 lab [Biosafety Level-4], but BU officials seem to be indicating that it can go forward,’ Turner said.
Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) said public safety was the biggest issue, fearing a botched experiment could lead to ‘quarantines, injuries and death on a scale that is unimaginable.’
‘One mistake could lead to very catastrophic results within our city,’ Yancey said.
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HI im a real estate developer here in MA, i was wondering if BU needed more student housing or Labs or classrooms. Im debating on purchasing a piece of parcel in the fenway/kenmore area. and trying to find out good uses for it, before i go ahead.<br/>thanks
No more then 4 unrelated in an apartment is STATE LAW, much like the <br/>laws governing Building, Plumbing and Electrical laws so each city and town <br/>doesn’t have it’s own LAWS. Would make life very difficult with each town <br/>issuing INDIVIDUAL licenses. What is uniqe to BOSTON is the wisdom of having BU compile addresses and notify Boston Inspection Services.<br/>C. Pauli
Ross raised concerns that without the implementation of this law, some of Boston’s residential neighborhoods will be turned into “extensions of college campuses.” Godforbid Boston should be like every other college town in the whole world! If thats not what boston residents wanted, they should have spoken up 150 years ago. They better extend the law to on-campus suites of more than 4.