Pat Ferrier

patferrier@coloradoan.com

The man who answers the door — he goes by T — knows he is not supposed to be living at the house on Yucca Court. He and three roommates have been warned, and now it could cost them a collective $18,000.

The four adults are in violation of the city's three-unrelated ordinance — often called you-plus-two — that restricts the number of unrelated people living together in Fort Collins to three.

Dale Wood, the city's enforcement muscle behind three-unrelated, isn't surprised he's back on the quiet tree-lined cul-de-sac to issue citations. When neighbors first complained a month ago about the over-occupancy, Wood said he found six adults living in the four-bedroom house.

The city thought the occupants had complied. But after more complaints, Wood last week said four adults and two children were living in the house, once again in violation of the regulation.

Theron Apodaca and a young girl answer the door when Wood and code enforcement officer Eric Keselburg knock. Wood brings backup when issuing a citation, just in case.

To avoid a scene in front of the girl, Wood asks Apodaca if he wants to accept the citations for himself and roommates or just have them taped to the front door. Apodaca opts for the latter and quickly disappears back into the house.

The roommates now have until Monday to comply with the occupancy requirements. They also must pay the fine or appear in court Aug. 6.

Three unrelated is part of a decades-old city occupancy ordinance that critics say artificially tightens the noose on vacancy rates, drives up rents and makes it tougher for lower-income residents to live in the city.

With a vacancy rate of 1.7 percent and the average rent at $1,200, Fort Collins is struggling to maintain its economic diversity while an increasing number of residents and housing advocates call for easing the three-unrelated rule.

"With the lowest vacancy rate in the state, Fort Collins is not in a position to keep overly conservative housing rules like the three-unrelated maximum," said Kelly Evans, executive director with Neighbor to Neighbor, a nonprofit that helps low-income residents with housing.

Even the city's own consultants note that increasing three-unrelated to four-unrelated could be a possible solution to solving or relieving some pressure on existing rental inventory.

From a student perspective, it drives up rents, said Lance Li Puma, vice president of Associated Students of CSU. "You're still renting a four-bedroom home for a four-bedroom price but only allowed to have three people, so it increases the cost to attend CSU. It's definitely more impactful on students who come from low-income families or low-income areas who may have to pick up one or two jobs" to account for the higher rent in Fort Collins.

ASCSU has consistently lobbied against the ordinance, but Li Puma said its arguments have never gotten any traction with city government. "We are always perceived by different levels of government that we are children coming in with another plea to change it," he said. "Students from CSU would like to see you-plus-two change or modified to at least fill the rooms in the house."

At a May 27 work session on housing affordability, the City Council made it clear that three-unrelated stays. But council members said they would consider an exemption process for seniors if carefully crafted.

Proponents argue the ordinance is helping preserve single-family homes and protecting residential neighborhoods from the negative impacts sometimes associated with rental properties, including streets choked with parked cars, unkempt yards and loud late-night parties.

The ordinance is not unique to Fort Collins; several college towns, including Greeley and Boulder, have similar restrictions in place.

"I'm not ready to reverse the ordinance at this point," said City Councilman Gino Campana. "It is a well-debated ordinance that has worked fairly well."

Cody Landry of Fort Collins said the only time there's been a problem with students in his neighborhood was when "they loaded the rooms with people resulting in eight to 10 people living in the house. It's a big house, but the parking was a problem."

Noise and traffic on the cul-de-sac became difficult, and when talking to the residents didn't work, invoking you-plus-two remedied the situation.

"I, for one, am thankful we have it," Landry said on the Coloradoan's Facebook page.

Council member Wade Troxell said three-unrelated has taken 1,000 beds out of play in Fort Collins, which has impacted vacancy rates and is driving construction of multifamily housing. "I think we have to be concerned about affordable housing; it's not just student housing," he said.

"I'm not advocating undoing three-unrelated, but when we think about housing stock where there's four or five bedrooms, they are being underutilized, and it drives up rent in our community."

Increasing pressure

In a couple of weeks, CSU students will return to Fort Collins, and the number of complaints hitting Wood's desk will rise. "By mid-August, the cases will start rolling in again," he said.

Public perception often targets CSU students as the main violators three-unrelated, but only one of the four occupants fined Monday is a student, Wood said.

"They can't afford the rent so they've taken in friends to help pay it," Wood said. An increasing number of violations of the city's controversial three-unrelated ordinance involve Front Range Community College students and nonstudents, he said.

Paul Anderson said he supported three-unrelated before anyone knew if it would work.

"Now we can say it's working," he said. "It's working in neighborhoods like ours with medium-priced homes."

While Fort Collins housing prices topped $313,000 in May, the highest average in city history, Anderson argues the ordinance keeps some home prices from going up even more.

A landlord renting to four students at $500 each could generate $2,000 a month, versus $1,500 with three students. Investors would be willing to pay more for a house they intended to keep as a rental if they knew they could get $2,000 a month, Anderson said. That drives up the costs for a family that might want to rent that house.

"If a single family has to compete against four or five kids who want to rent, they won't be able to afford the rent," he said. "We have to have the rule stay. It comes down to economics for the single family that wants to rent."

Those who want to rent to more than three unrelated tenants can apply for an occupancy waiver, he said. "The option is there, it's on the books. Things are working."

Beth Sowder, manager of the city's neighborhood services office, said "It doesn't appear there's any movement (by council) to revisit it at this time.

"I do hear from people in neighborhoods that they've seen improvement in the single-family character, even seeing some switch back to owner-occupied homes that had been rentals in the past," she said. "On the other hand, I've heard from students they don't fully understand it."

An online petition at change.org and signed by 1,333 supporters encourages the council to change you-plus-two to me-plus-three.

At change.org, some say the occupancy rules make it more difficult for students to afford their rent. Several students said splitting rent four ways helps stretch already limited budgets.

Wood acknowledges the four friends on Yucca Court are just trying to cut down on the rent.

With a 1.7 percent vacancy rate in the city, finding somewhere else to live could prove challenging for the extra occupants.

"We're as empathetic as we can be, but we still have a job to do," Wood said. "It's unfortunate that we have to take things to this level, but they're driving the bus."

Wood, a former police officer, has never lost an over-occupancy case, Keselburg said, adding, "It's because he puts together such strong cases beforehand."

Fines can add up for every day in violation

Though occupancy regulations have been on the books since 1964, they were rarely enforced until 2005. That's when council reduced violations from a criminal to civil offense. The first citations were issued in 2007.

The rules make allowances for temporary guests and blended families with or without a marriage license. They also provide a way to get an extra occupancy waiver in certain zones.

Today, Wood typically investigates about 100 complaints per year and issues between 15 and 20 citations. The offending landlord, property owner or tenant typically has 20 days to comply with the ordinance. If they don't, the fines can be substantial — up to $1,000 per day, per person.

Writing tickets is "the unpleasant part of my job, but it needs to get out there that yes, we do do this and level significant fines," Wood said.

Many of the hefty fines are settled for less.

"We don't want to bankrupt anybody, but we want the penalty to be significant enough that they won't reoffend," Wood said.

The enforcement office tends to go easier on students who are just trying to get by.

"If we hit students with a $10,000 fine, they have no means to pay that ... we factor that in," Wood said.

But if the offense costs students their beer money, so be it. "If they're spending $200 to $300 a semester to party, that's the money we want to take."

The stiffest penalty ever levied was $38,000 to a three-peat offender who was converting a single-family house to an upstairs/downstairs duplex that did not have the proper permit. The case was settled for $2,000.

"It was not a legal duplex," Wood said. "There was no way this individual could pay a fine greater than that. It doesn't make sense to assess a fine that will never be satisfied."

Ben Story said the ordinance is unnecessary and the council's goals for neighborhoods can be achieved in better ways, including having exceptions for owner-occupied homes.

He and his family live with his in-laws, a legal combination under three-unrelated. But if his in-laws were to leave, Story would have extra bedrooms that would sit empty.

"It would make sense to us to open them up to students or a single mom with kids or someone struggling to find affordable housing," Story said. "But right now we couldn't do it unless we went through the exemption process."

Areas throughout the city allow for extra-occupancy rental houses through an application process and $200 fee, but only 47 landlords or property owners have applied for the waiver, said Peter Barnes, zoning supervisor.

Annual investigations

(not all reported cases resulted in citations)

2007: 141*

2008: 61

2009: 64

2010: 104

2011: 85

2012: 157

2013: 89

2014 (through 7/9): 58

*The two-plus-you rule was rewritten in 2005 to become a civil infraction. The city provided a two-year educational period before it started investigating complaints in 2007.

What's allowed

• A family (of any size)

• A family (of any size) and their nanny

• A family (of any size) and an exchange student

• Two single parents, their kids and a friend

• Two siblings and one friend.

What's not allowed

• Two couples,

• Two siblings and their two friends

• A family (of any size), a caretaker and an exchange student.