Fwd: EDITORIAL: City should study student-housing issue | TuscaloosaNews.com
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Subject: EDITORIAL: City should study student-housing issue | TuscaloosaNews.com
The 2012 ACRE Housing Study that was done after the tornado said "Student Housing – 300 to 600 Units Opportunity Range. University enrollment is foreseen to continue growing but most likely at a less rapid pace than the last few years. Based on the currently approved new student housing projects to be built, caution is recommended for approving additional student housing projects for the term of this [ 5 year ] forecast."I guess studying this issue now can't hurt but the editorial should have asked why it's even necessary.http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20130703/NEWS/130709975/1012/opinion?Title=EDITORIAL-City-should-study-student-housing-issue-Published: Wednesday, July 3, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.Anyone with a pair of eyeballs can easily see that a fairly substantial apartment construction boom is under way. So the mayor’s call for a task force to study the student housing market seems timely.
The task force would include a broad spectrum of people with vested interests in apartment construction and its impact on the city. It includes neighborhood advocates as well as developers.
Mayor Walt Maddox has heard a number of calls from throughout the city to look into whether the Tuscaloosa market is becoming oversaturated with student housing. Off-
campus housing has seen a number of booms and busts over the years.
During the 1960s, the University of Alabama basically gave up on trying to house all or even a great majority of students on campus. UA left it up to private real estate developers to create enough housing to accommodate the overflow.
At a time when planning and zoning were relatively new concepts here, the results were sometimes disastrous. City officials showed little restraint in where they allowed apartments to be built. The effects were particularly detrimental to the aging neighborhoods adjoining the University of Alabama and Alberta areas.
Student apartment development pushed out to the edges of town. But as land near campus became available for redevelopment, older apartments and those farther from campus became less desirable. As the rent landlords could charge declined, upkeep and maintenance sometimes became more haphazard.
When apartments deteriorated and sometimes became magnets for crime, the neighborhoods around them deteriorated. Without question, when the market becomes oversaturated with apartments, vacancies pop up in older properties. The end result is usually undesirable.
So if that is what the city will soon face, the city officials need to know. But the question remains, what will the city do with the information?
Some would argue that the market should control supply and demand. Ideally, it should. That is the free market system.
But it’s also true that run-down apartments that affect neighboring property values are not just an individual’s problems. Neighbors see the investment in their property shrink while the city foots the bill for crime problems and collects less property tax.
Large apartment complexes frequently require the city to rezone property. The city is under no obligation to change zoning. So it could control the apartment inventory by refusing to rezone property.
However, city officials can’t take into account the desires of existing landlords to protect their market share. It’s not the city’s business to protect their investment. The city’s only concern should be to ensure that apartments are built in appropriate locations and that new apartments don’t create problems for the entire city.
It’s a difficult order to fill. Gathering information is a good first step.