2008 Woodie Awards
Orono Town Council requires landlords to register
Votes unanimously on regulation to keep up-to-date records on rental properties
Sam Cohen
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: News
The Orono Town Council unanimously passed a proposal to reform Orono's regulation of rental housing in a meeting held on Jan. 16. The new regulation will require landlords to register with the town and provide information regarding their rental units for a fee.
The site description requires information such as: the maximum occupancy of each unit, the number of unrelated renters in each unit and sketches of property lines. It also requires the location of trash containment and parking areas.
Campus residence halls, fraternities, sororities and community living centers, such as Orchard Trails, are unaffected by this ordinance.
During the meeting, Councilman Geoff Gordon said the ordinance was necessary. "The town has zero information on who owns rentals and how they're used. We need to know who is responsible. If there is a complaint about trash lying around we need to know who to call. It also helps for planning purposes," he said.
Registration is required once a year, and the fee will be approximately $25, although the council has not yet finalized this figure.
Landlord Kurtis Marsh thinks the fee will raise costs for students. "There is already huge pressure on owners from the oil prices. This fee gets passed on to the students and will raise prices, and frankly I doubt the fee will stay at $25," he said. Marsh is the President of the Greater Bangor Apartment Owners & Managers Association and rents out more than 150 apartments. The $25 fee will be charged to each apartment individually. "I don't think it should cost $25 to charge owners to fill out a couple sheets of paper. It is sad to pass costs on to students. It's not necessary," Marsh said.
Mary Cathcart, a senior policy fellow at the Margaret Chase Smith Center on campus and Orono resident, spoke in favor of the ordinance at the meeting. "It's good for the town to know where the apartments are. It's good for comprehensive planning reasons," she said. "We have to be concerned with sprawl. There is some sprawl, even in Orono, which most people don't realize. Planning is important so we know the best place to put new housing."
The site description requires information such as: the maximum occupancy of each unit, the number of unrelated renters in each unit and sketches of property lines. It also requires the location of trash containment and parking areas.
Campus residence halls, fraternities, sororities and community living centers, such as Orchard Trails, are unaffected by this ordinance.
During the meeting, Councilman Geoff Gordon said the ordinance was necessary. "The town has zero information on who owns rentals and how they're used. We need to know who is responsible. If there is a complaint about trash lying around we need to know who to call. It also helps for planning purposes," he said.
Registration is required once a year, and the fee will be approximately $25, although the council has not yet finalized this figure.
Landlord Kurtis Marsh thinks the fee will raise costs for students. "There is already huge pressure on owners from the oil prices. This fee gets passed on to the students and will raise prices, and frankly I doubt the fee will stay at $25," he said. Marsh is the President of the Greater Bangor Apartment Owners & Managers Association and rents out more than 150 apartments. The $25 fee will be charged to each apartment individually. "I don't think it should cost $25 to charge owners to fill out a couple sheets of paper. It is sad to pass costs on to students. It's not necessary," Marsh said.
Mary Cathcart, a senior policy fellow at the Margaret Chase Smith Center on campus and Orono resident, spoke in favor of the ordinance at the meeting. "It's good for the town to know where the apartments are. It's good for comprehensive planning reasons," she said. "We have to be concerned with sprawl. There is some sprawl, even in Orono, which most people don't realize. Planning is important so we know the best place to put new housing."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
galen
posted 3/03/08 @ 1:07 AM EST
I think that this landlord should pay higher fees.
He refuses to return security deposits to past renters, so why not?
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