The Daily Free Press

Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Kristyn Ulanday BC juniors Ben Resil and Ian Palmer and RPI junior Nick Marchand kick back to watch a baseball game in their Brighton apartment. With six undergrads in the apartment, the leasing arrangement violates city zoning code.

On March 13, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino signed off on an amendment to the city zoning code, making it illegal for more than four full-time undergraduate students to rent an apartment together.

The amendment, unanimously approved by the City Council in December and approved by the Zoning Commission March 12, immediately went into effect. With the flick of a pen, pre-existing living arrangements across the city were made illegal.

The position landlords were put in because of the undergraduate renter cap is part of the reason four Boston landlords and a Boston College student are challenging the zoning amendment in state Land Court, said attorney Stephen Greenbaum.

Landlords Mark Rosenberg, Lazarus Pavlidis, Anthony Dimeo and Lloyd Rosenthal and BC sophomore Jessica Luccio filed a complaint against the city of Boston and the city Zoning Commission April 8, Greenbaum said.

City Councilor Michael Ross spearheaded the City Council proposal to limit undergraduate housing at the end of last year, picking up the support of neighborhood groups railing against apparent student overcrowding and misbehavior. Ross said high-occupancy apartments drive up rents in neighborhoods near college campuses and students are often taken advantage of by greedy, absentee landlords who pack co-eds into converted spaces "like sardines."

BC junior Ben Resil said his six-bedroom apartment, owned by Anthony Dimeo, one of the landlords challenging the city of Boston and the Zoning Commission, comfortably houses the six students now living there.

"It's definitely sufficient. It's less crowded than the dorms by far," Resil said. He and his roommates split the $5,200 monthly rent, and he said the rate is less per month than living on campus.

For students who cannot live at BC, which does not guarantee on-campus student housing, a 12-month lease is a downside to off-campus renting, and rates depend on individual situations, Resil said.

Continued...

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