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It is past time for the City Council and the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) to crack down on the scofflaws operating apartment buildings masquerading as “homes” in our residential neighborhoods.
I am, of course, referring to monster houses. While legally permitted, the land use ordinance limits the number of nonrelated people in a residential unit to five, or a family plus three. The city is missing out on millions of dollars in tax revenues by not being able to tax these monstrosities, which are really horizontal apartment buildings.
DPP says it has no way to confirm, or thereby enforce, the limit on unrelated tenants. I call on the Council and DPP to fix this problem and require these owners to pay their fair share of taxes. Additionally, since the apartment use is not legal there should be no “grandfathering” of these illegally operating apartment buildings.
John Arnest
Wilhelmina Rise
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