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A grassroots effort to reduce housing density

Oxford's 13th neighborhood wants fewer students

By Carleigh Turner, The Miami Student

The Quail Ridge Neighborhood of Oxford is seeking to join 12 others as Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts (NCOD).

Debra Allison, retired vice president of technology at Miami University, began the process in August of this year. She gathered signatures, knocked on doors and worked with the city to eventually have her petition heard in a Sept. 20 City Council Meeting.

The petition, aimed at addressing noise, traffic and parking issues, will be reviewed by Oxford's Planning Commission on Nov. 8. If approved, it will be considered again by the full City Council. If OK'd then, Quail Ridge would be Oxford's 13th conversation zone.

"You have to applaud those (people) for going through this process," Director of Community Development Jung-Han Chen said. "It's a very lengthy process and the neighbors need to be committed."

Although the petition process seemed formidable at the beginning -- it includes 21 steps and takes at least six months -- Allison said she has enjoyed it.

"It's been a lot of fun learning how the city works," she said.

These neighborhood petitions are the result of an ordinance passed in 2012, permitting Oxford homeowners to petition City Council to restrict the number of unrelated individuals able to rent a home. Chen provided the initial suggestion for the ordinance, and drafted it with the help of the Planning Commission.

Previously, a single-family home was defined as having four, unrelated persons living in one home. However, in order to reduce noise, cut traffic and limit trash buildup, owners have the option to petition City Council to change the definition of a single-family home to one with two unrelated persons, according to Chen.

Once passed, the petitions do not affect rental properties that have already obtained a rental permit. If a rental property does not have a permit, they must comply with the NCOD, Chen said.

Allison, whose neighborhood contains two rental properties -- one housing students, the other a family -- said her neighborhood is seeking a NCOD only partly to decrease student rentals. She said she learned about the opportunity from other neighborhoods, which had gone through the process.

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"I think most people think [the petitions] are directed at college students, but they're certainly not," she said. "It's funny, the students living in [my neighborhood] were actually the more desirable neighbors."

Rental properties, especially those with owners who live out-of-state, can be less well kept, Allison said. So decreasing the number of individuals in rental properties should increase property values in Quail Ridge and make the neighborhood more desirable.

"If you drive around Oxford, you'll see that many of the houses are not well-maintained," Allison said.

Allison said she received little to no community pushback about her petition. Only two out of the 19 Quail Ridge residents did not sign the petition, giving Allison the two-thirds majority she needed to send the petition to City Council.

"Buying a home is the single-most significant investment a person can make," Allison said. "So [the neighbors] are looking for ways they can help and zoning regulations are one way they can do that."

Sue Jones, volunteer chair of the William Holmes McGuffey Museum and an Oxford resident since 1978, initiated the Olde Farm/Country Club neighborhood's NCOD petition in August 2014. It became the third neighborhood to win one, with its passage in March 2015.

Eighty percent of the residents in the neighborhood, which consists of 94 properties and eight rental properties, signed the petition.

Jones was concerned about traffic congestion, noise and excess trash in her neighborhood.

"Frankly, if there's a large group of people living [in a house], whether they are students or not, if they don't clean up it can get kind of messy," she said.

Residents in Oxford's "square mile," the area dominated by student rentals surrounding campus, have the option to petition as well. However, Allison and Chen do not see that happening in the future.

"The mile is full of students [who are] transient, versus the west part of Oxford that has permanent residents who live there year in and year out," Chen said. "I don't believe there is any portion on the square mile to do that."

Although City Council has made the decision to keep this process a grassroots effort, Allison said Council has been helpful and willing to guide her throughout the petitioning process. She is impressed with Council's focus on community development, she said.

"It's interesting that this is something that is happening," Allison said. "People recognize the negative effect [of rentals] on home values and want to protect the values of their homes."

This story was produced in cooperation with patch.com, a community-focused website with content produced by Miami journalism students.

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