Oakwood resident Ted Kissell said the city’s ordinance — prohibiting more than two unrelated people from living together in a single-family residence — is not well-enforced and should be strengthened. He said 15 of the 22 homes sold on the Oakwood side of Irving Avenue in the past five years are now rentals.
Some local residents said increased noise, traffic and trash from the rentals are out of line with the city’s stated vision of being “a premier residential community.”
“We want to say three things,” said Kissell, a former UD athletics director who lives next door to Oakwood’s City Manager Norbert Klopsch. “We want them to recognize the seriousness of the issue, we want them to prioritize it, and we want to sit at table with Oakwood and the university as they look for solutions.”
Klopsch challenged the claim that the city is not enforcing its ordinance, saying the city works to keep track of which homes are rentals and who lives in them.
Klopsch said the city cannot pass tougher laws that only apply to one part of the city. But north Oakwood resident Martha Haley mentioned the possibility of a zoning overlay district that would give the city some flexibility in that regard.
While the residents are raising their concerns with the city, UD is also involved.
Through a UD spokeswoman, Bucaro said the university is developing educational materials for students to help them “be good consumers, good renters and good neighbors.”
William Fischer, UD’s vice president for student development, said UD has no formal position on students renting homes in Oakwood and does not know how many students live in the city.
Fischer said he has received a few recent complaints about student behavior from Oakwood residents and is dealing with those on a case-by-case basis.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley@DaytonDailyNews.com
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