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• Council passes ordinance protecting landlords in jeopardy of loosing non-conforming use status for non-family housing:  In August, Indiana Borough Council approved an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance that will preserve the ability of landlords to rent to unrelated individuals in certain circumstances.  Under the recently-approved Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, R-1 and R-2 Zoning Districts are intended for traditional families.  Student rentals in those zones are classified as non-conforming uses, subject to “the 400-foot rule” and requirements to preserve occupancy for “functional families”.  A non-conforming use that is “grandfathered” for a given number of students may continue to rent to that number of students unless it reduces its student occupancy for longer than 9 consecutive months.  After that time, the non-conforming use will be grandfathered to the lower occupancy.  For example, a unit grandfathered for 5 students that rents to only 4 students for the entire year would have its permitted occupancy reduced from 5 to 4 non-related individuals.  Prior to this new ordinance, a landlord that reduced the number of unrelated individuals in the unit for more than 9 months would loose its non-conforming status entirely.  From the above example, the occupancy would be reduced from 5 unrelated individuals to a functional family only.  This amendment is intended to maintain stability in the rental marketplace and  preserve the investment of landlords in their properties. Please click link to view full Ordinance.

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