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Introduction At the end of 2007, the City Council directed staff to begin researching rental regulation and administrative fining programs. This project was primarily initiated due to increasing concern over property maintenance issues, code enforcement issues, the conversion of owner occupied housing to rental housing, and college student occupied rental housing. While this project initially focused on rental licensing and administrative fines, it became clear that the concerns expressed by residents and City Council relate to overall quality of life and not just rental or college student occupied properties. Moreover, a rental regulation or administrative fine program alone is unlikely to resolve the City Council's and residents' concerns. In order to address the broader community livability issues, this research project was expanded from a review of rental licensing and administrative fine programs to include rental registration, abatement, accelerated abatement, education, and regulation review. This report summarizes the findings of that research, tools available to the City, implementation, a brief evaluation of costs, and a potential course of action. To help frame the issues and discuss potential courses of action, staff assembled an informal focus group and researched code violation trends. A summary of current code enforcement resources is also provided. Rental Housing Focus Group On May 22 and June 5, an informal focus group was convened to discuss rental housing issues and related concerns. The prilnary purpose of this group was to help identify the issues and concerns of the community regarding rental properties and to discuss the regulatory tools available to the City to deal with these issues. These discussions included residents, a representative from Bethel University & Northwestern College, the owner of Park shore Apartnlents, a nlelnber of the Planning Commission, a Ramsey County sheriff deputy, and rental property owners. The attendees and minutes are included in attachment A. While this was not a fonnal cOlnmittee, they did provide input on the concerns and potential courses of action. A number of issues were discussed, including parking, occupancy levels, property maintenance, yard maintenance, and other nuisances. The general conclusion of the group was that the code violations and other nuisance concerns went beyond just rental properties. Moreover, the group determined that most of the concerns expressed by the group were already dealt with in the City's regulations and that the more pressing issues are education and the City's ability to enforce the existing codes. The suggestion of the group was to provide more education, communicate with the community, review existing regulations, and explore better legal options for code enforcement. City of Arden Hills Ci(v Council Work Session for October 20. 2008 \ \Ahdocs 1 \ah \AHdata\Planning I Community De...,'elopment\Communi~\' LivabilitylA1emos\1 02008 - CC .Memo - Communi~v Livabili(v.doc Page 2 of 12