As a spotlight continues to shine on Bowling Green’s zoning ordinance, the potential for change has drawn in a variety of players from the University and the community.

City officials are steadfast in their belief that the zoning definitions, which have not changed since 1975, should continue to be enforced as is.

“It’s the law,” said Rick Ketzenbarger, director of Planning and Zoning. “The law is the law.”

As time has passed the University’s enrollment and the interest in off-campus housing has grown, and Alex Wright, president of Undergraduate Student Government, thinks that the law doesn’t fit the town like it had in the past.

“The complexity of the town has changed dramatically,” Wright said. “It just isn’t practical anymore.”

College students needs have also changed over time. The average student has a television, stereo and computer; along with a bed and other furniture, according to local landlords.

Greenbriar Inc. Rentals owner Robert Maurer and Frobose Rentals owner John Frobose would like to see the law changed, if only to adapt to the technology and private space needs of students to make them as comfortable as possible.

“Why shouldn’t the college student be able to live in a home with his own bedroom at a reasonable cost?” Maurer said. “College students today are a whale of a lot different than they were in the 1960s.”

“Now there’s more affluency, more technology,” Frobose said, “which is necessary because of your education, and you need that room.”

Because the ordinance is no new thing, Ward 1 representative Sarah Tomashefski sees the recent over-occupancy violations as a landlord problem.

“It’s time to hold them [landlords] accountable,” Tomashefski said. “If you reward them now for breaking a law what happens next time a law is challenged? Where do you draw the line?”

When asked about the practicality of enforcing a limit of three unrelated people in four-bedroom homes, Ward 2 representative Mike Zickar — who represents the majority of off-campus student-residents — admits that it may not make sense.

“I don’t think there is any practicality,” Zickar said. “There really isn’t any.”

With that being said, Zickar also thinks that the responsibility must lie with landlords who’ve allowed too many students to live in their houses.

“Most students weren’t aware that this law was even on the books, I’m sure they are now though, but the landlords knew,” Zickar said.

Maurer believes that the problem is not landlords or students who may be in violation, but an inefficient law that allows different occupancies for different homes in town, regardless of their size.

“You and I could drive down a street in Ward 2 and one house would be allowed to have six or seven people because its been grandfathered, but the one right next door can only have three,” Maurer said. “That may well be unreasonable, and in my opinion it is. There should be a happy medium in between.”

The potential for change is there, but adjustment to the number in a home will directly affect parking for that area.

One possible solution is the distribution of a finite amount of stickers by the city for street parking. These would be given out by the landlords to students who live in houses.

Other ideas include the extension of pavement into a house’s backyard, along with city parking lots. All plans would require extensive planning beforehand, city officials said.

When comparing the area of a house and apartment, Maurer just can’t understand the practicality of wasted space.

“An average 800 square foot apartment with two bedrooms can hold four to five kids no problem with the local health department code,” Maurer said. “It doesn’t make much sense that only three people can live in a 2,000 square foot four bedroom house.”

Mayor John Quinn has confidence that enforcement of the current law will lead to basic economics, forcing landlords to lower the prices of their rental homes.

“If there are vacancies, shouldn’t supply and demand eventually start to bring the price down?” Quinn asked.

Quinn added that right now the city’s enforcement is also trying to even out the playing field between landlords abiding by the law and those who are not.

“If I’m a landlord and I respect the law and rent to three, and somebody else is a landlord who rents to more than three, they are going to hurt my chances of renting,” Quinn said. “At some point someone needs to step in and make the game fair.”

Editor’s Note: Carrie Whitaker contributed to this report.

Stay tuned next week for the fourth part of our series.