NORTH MANKATO — A majority of North Mankato City Council members appear open to raising the percentage of homes that could be turned into rentals but found the issue to be complicated.
The city in 2016 passed an ordinance that limits rental licenses to 10% per block in many residential areas. The ordinance aligned with a 2015 Comprehensive Plan that aimed to limit rental units in certain areas to preserve owner-occupied single-family homes.
Late last year the city reconvened the rental density advisory committee to review the rental density ordinance to see if it should stay the same or be altered. The advisory group includes a developer, real estate agent, landlord, homeowner, renter and a Planning Commission member.
The council and advisory committee held a special meeting Monday night for residents who had questions or comments about the current ordinance.
While the ordinance limits rentals to 10%, many neighborhoods in lower North Mankato have higher numbers than that because existing homes that were rentals were grandfathered in when the original ordinance was passed.
“Lower North is a hot spot for people interested in having rental properties,” City Planner Matt Lassonde said.
Upper North Mankato, with more expensive and newer homes, has fewer that are turned into rentals.
Lassonde said staff and the committee found police calls to rental units in the neighborhoods under the density ordinance were significantly higher than to owner occupied homes.
Lower North Mankato has 325 rental licenses among 217 properties while there are 109 rental licenses among 84 rental properties in upper North Mankato.
Tom Hagen, who lives near Spring Lake Park and owns historic homes that he brought in, renovated and rents, said the 10% rule was aimed at addressing citizen complaints about rental homes that were not kept up by their owners and had bad renters causing trouble for the neighborhood. “That didn’t solve anything.”
He said rather than focusing on a percentage, the city needs to look at ways to tighten rental regulations so that they can hold bad landlords and bad tenants accountable.
Hagen said there should be tighter standards for property upkeep and more financial penalties for landlords who don’t keep their properties up.
He said few cities have rental density limits such as North Mankato does and they find ways to curb problem properties.
Councilman Billy Steiner said the current ordinance may be “a little restrictive,” but said he wants to hear more information from the committee.
Councilman Jim Whitlock said he’s surrounded by rentals and has never had a problem with the tenants. He said the percentage of allowable rentals should probably be increased.
Council member Matt Peterson said he’s in favor of increasing the percentage of rentals.
All the council members and the mayor said they want the committee to continue studying the various issues and come back with recommendations.
Stephanie Stoffel, head of the city’s Planning Commission and the person who leads the rental density committee, said the committee did discuss many of the issues brought up at Monday night’s meeting and said the group is working to come up with the best recommendations possible.
Residents can go to northmankato.com and search “rental density” to find background information and updated study findings.