In what could be a precursor to more sweeping changes to the ordinance banning rentals within 300 feet of one another, At Large City Councilor Jim Stauber is proposing a 30-day grace period for illegal rentals.
This would allow landlords who rented out rooms or homes illegally before the ordinance took effect to attain a legal license and be grandfathered in.
"This is their last chance to come in and say 'OK, I should have gotten a license, but I didn't get a license,' " Stauber said. This won't increase the total number of rental units, he said, because people who haven't already been renting out a room or house won't be eligible to apply.
Those rentals already exist, but illegally, Stauber said.
"Now if they can get a license, and they pay the city, and they get inspected, the renters there will be safer and we'll have an accounting of it," he said.
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In order to get a three-year license now, scofflaws would have to pay the license fee covering all the years they rented illegally.
The cost is $220 per home for a three-year license.
If Stauber's 30-day amnesty is approved by councilors next month, the 30-day window would start sometime in March.
Some landlords who had been renting illegally for years were getting notices stating that their tenants had to move out because another licensed rental was within 300 feet.
Mayor Don Ness decided to stop all evictions until June 1.
Although rentals are spread throughout the city, the ordinance was passed primarily to address the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Minnesota Duluth and St. Scholastica, which are increasingly filled with student rentals.
At-Large councilors Jeff Anderson and Tony Cuneo, both of whom have been deeply involved with this issue, viewed this as a possible piece in a much larger effort to make changes to the 300-foot ordinance.
"I think it's a temporary fix to something that has had unintentional, negative effects in the whole community," Anderson said.
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Anderson and Cuneo both said they want to spend considerable time investigating the current ordinance before trying to make major changes, and therefore aren't sure when a more substantial change might come before the Duluth City Council.
"I don't think it was as well thought out as it could have been," Anderson said of the original ordinance.
PATRICK GARMOE can be reached at (218) 723-5229 or pgarmoe@duluthnews.com .
