Narragansett Council starts process to cap student rentals at 3

[RF1]

The Narragansett Town Council has taken the first steps in limiting student rentals to a maximum of three persons. They are doing so in response to resident complaints about students. If this is enacted and enforced, it will make many rentals far more costly on a per student basis. The net effect of this will result in many less students living down the line.

Narragansett Town Council starts process for limiting rentals to 3 students per dwelling
https://www.newportri.com/news/20200630 ... r-dwelling

[RF1]

It is not clear when this cap would go into effect. If it is this year, URI students are really going to have a tough time finding housing. The new Narragansett restrictions would be on top of the plans by URI to reduce on campus university sponsored housing by 1,800 spaces this upcoming academic calendar due to Covid-19.

[jakepnickers]

Public forum on the motion was set for tonight, zoom meeting reached 100 person capacity before the meeting started, will be rescheduled for next week with a 500 person capacity meeting may reach capacity too

[rhodyruckus]

I mean we're in the middle of a pandemic, it would be a 2nd nut punch to students to enforce these changes prior to the 2021-22 school year. There is also the matter of this month being EXTREMELY important for universities to lay out their detailed approach to the new school year. Toying with off campus housing before even knowing the plan at URI seems a bit off.

[Rhodymob05]

I see about 1000 + lawsuits headed towards URI/Gansett with this housing reduction.

[steviep123]

I'm pretty sure (if my old memory servers) this was true back in the late 80s/early 90s when I lived down the line. I recall having 4 or 5 of us in a house but only 3 of us on the lease.

[ramster]

It’s good news to the people who have houses that they rent. Supply vs Demand means the rent is going way up.

[jakepnickers]

I disagree, I think this is bad news for people who rent houses. The supply and demand is true but you are forgetting to factor in people's willingness to pay. College students can only afford so much rent so either people will rent somewhere else or they have to lower the rent so it's affordable for 3 students and make less money per house.

[TruePoint]

Yeah, to clarify on the supply vs demand thing, it depends on what your situation is as the property owner. If your home sometimes went unrented for whatever reason then obviously this is good for you because some of the students that formerly lived in houses with more than 2 other students will be back on the market and need a place to go. If you own a house that typically rented to 2 or 3 students, then for sure the increased demand could drive prices up subtly. However, if you used to rent your property to more than 3 students - which was apparently prevalent enough that they feel the need to make a law about it - then you’re going to take a bath here. If you used to rent to 5 students at $3500, that was $700 per student. In order to make more money in this scenario, you’d have to charge 3 students $3600. Going from $700 per head to $1200 is just flat out not going to happen. So on the whole, my guess is that this likely lowers overall rental income in the town while some property owners may benefit.

The other thing I’m not sure about here is how this really does anything beyond change how many names are on the lease. If I want to rent a house with 5 bedrooms with 4 of my friends, but there is a rule that only 3 people can rent, then 100% we’ll put 3 names on the lease and the other 2 guys will take a bedroom and square up on rent with us every month. I don’t see how they can enforce the rule. My house my senior year in Eastward had 4 bedrooms and 4 tenants on the lease but between people crashing on the couch and girlfriends and whatnot, I’d say we averaged somewhere between 7-10 people sleeping in the house every night and at least that many cars in the driveway and on the street. Just no way for anyone to know how many people are in a house on a given night. This seems hairbrained and reactionary to me, but hardly surprising.

[ramster]

In addition to the 3 person limit per home you have URI reducing from 6,200 to 4,400 or 1,800 spaces. That is a huge reduction putting that much more demand on the fixed supply of off campus housing.

Time to buy homes for the summer and rent in the winter to a max of 3 students.

Students might opt to rent further away but I'm sure the beaches are a big attraction as they always have been. In many cases mommy/daddy from NY, NJ, PA pay the rent just as they would on campus housing

URI will reduce the density/capacity of its residence halls on the Kingston Campus. On-campus housing accommodations will be modified to better ensure the health and well-being of students and the entire community for the fall 2020 semester. This will result in a reduction of housing capacity from a planned 6,200 spaces to approximately 4,400 spaces.

[ramster]

On top of the 3 person Limit these Rhode Island Resident students lose their previously committed on campus housing while out of staters get to keep their dorms

More pressure to find off campus
Housing. Students not happy about the lateness of the notification and I can’t blame them - it’s July and they couldn’t have told them sooner? Poor planning.

[ramster]

Modeled after the Providence College related law

https://www.ricentral.com/narragansett_ ... f995a.html

[ramster]

Moving closer

https://www.independentri.com/news/arti ... 16426.html

[ramster]

The university said it’s developing an appeals process for students who can make a good case that it would be very difficult to live off campus.
Sixty students have successfully appealed their case so far.
URI is also looking at enhancing its on-campus shuttle.
“We are exploring off-campus housing,” Collins said. “When we made the announcement, over 600 beds were available from private landlords. We’re in very close contact with them.”

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/ ... o-freshmen

[phipsiGD'11]

I have never understood the town of Narragansett when it comes to their approach with students.
If students decide that maxing 3 people per house PLUS the orange sticker law limiting house parties of any size PLUS lack of bars to go to, is too much BS to deal with for living close to a beach you use maybe for 2 weeks a year, they can start looking at other places to rent houses (matunuck, charlestown, different areas of south Kingstown, North Kingstown, etc) then Narragansett is shot.
Ask people from the Jersey shore what it is like down there in the winter when there aren't thousands of students to help bulster the economy. Narragansett has a large population and SK being so close helps, but how many of those business survive if there are no students? What happens to prive value on all of those houses if they cant be rented throughout the winter? What happens to your tax base?
I understand the issues students bring, but there's 3 places these students are primarily concentrated. Old Eastward, New Eastward, Bonnet shores. I lived at the Pier for a semester and wouldnt do it again because not enough students around, always had to drive to eastward. Figure out better ways to work with students in those neighborhoods.
You limit the amount of people per house you will get two outcomes:
1) students leave and your town is now vastly worse off than before.
2) students move into more rentals and your problem just grew rather than shrank.

[section(105)]

......Over and over the issues surrounding URI students renting homes, Town government, and local residents remains the same. The figuring out the ways to work with the students, for me is simple. Students simply have to behave in a manner that does not detract from the quality of life in the various neighborhoods; control trash and litter, park only designated, keep noise levels down, keep party crowds to reasonable numbers, and generally be good respectful citizens. Do this consistently and Town governments would not have to regulate student housing, is that too much to expect of students renting homes?

[ramster]

History unfortunately would say yes it is too much to expect from students.

[TruePoint]

URI students have been renting houses and throwing bangers in Narragansett for more than 50 years. Nobody that chose to live there can honestly say that they did so without that knowledge. The town is a tourist trap in the summer and an extension of URI’s campus in the winter. It is what it is.

[Rhodymob05]

All major universities have college neighborhoods. Like TP said, its well known knowledge. Is PC UCONN UNH ect also limiting on campus/off campus living?

[phipsiGD'11]

105 you lost me with "park only designated".

Do you know where you can park as designated in the eastward look neighborhoods from Labor Day to MDW? In driveways. That's it. Not allowed to park on the street. Hence why students then park on the lawns. If I want to visit a friend who had 5 people living in a 5 bedroom house, they already had 5 cars in the driveway, where would you like someone else to park?

Like I said, there are only 2 areas in all of gansett these issues arise; Eastward Looks and Bonnet Shores. And to me Bonnet Shares is MUCH tamer.

If you're a year round resident in Eastward Look neighborhoods, I don't feel bad for you. You're house has probably grew in value exponentially since about 2015. Sell and go to a different neighborhood. Or don't, but don't infringe on the rights of other landowners/renters/students because you're bitter.

[section(105)]

......but you were with me except for the parking?.......just asking......but the rights of others that are negatively impacted by renters, summer or winter is OK?......

[phipsiGD'11]

I agree with you that college kids should behave more like adults, but from the baby boomer generation down, parents have basically raised their kids to be selfish. 18 year olds should be treated like adults, but even 22 year olds now are still coddled by their parents and live life with minimal responsibility (obvious over-generalization).

You can't negatively impact rights, but you can infringe upon them. You can negatively impact their experience of being a landowner. I would agree that their experience of being a landowner is negatively impacted in the way that they share a neighborhood with loud obnoxious college kids. But once again, do your research before you buy a house or sell your house for what I'm sure is a large profit from when you purchased it years ago.
Don't try and take away the rights of others. Meaning don't restrict other landowners from their ability to rent to students and make money on their investment. Don't restrict on the students rights to pay to live in a house with other people.

Personally I think South Kingstown, North Kingstown, all the other little towns/villages/hamlets around should be looking to develop areas for URI kids to live because soon enough Gansett is going to make it too much of a hassle and the kids will say screw it and go somewhere else.

[Taylor Swift]

I have never understood the town of Narragansett when it comes to their approach with students.
If students decide that maxing 3 people per house PLUS the orange sticker law limiting house parties of any size PLUS lack of bars to go to, is too much BS to deal with for living close to a beach you use maybe for 2 weeks a year, they can start looking at other places to rent houses (matunuck, charlestown, different areas of south Kingstown, North Kingstown, etc) then Narragansett is shot.
Ask people from the Jersey shore what it is like down there in the winter when there aren't thousands of students to help bulster the economy. Narragansett has a large population and SK being so close helps, but how many of those business survive if there are no students? What happens to prive value on all of those houses if they cant be rented throughout the winter? What happens to your tax base?
I understand the issues students bring, but there's 3 places these students are primarily concentrated. Old Eastward, New Eastward, Bonnet shores. I lived at the Pier for a semester and wouldnt do it again because not enough students around, always had to drive to eastward. Figure out better ways to work with students in those neighborhoods.
You limit the amount of people per house you will get two outcomes:
1) students leave and your town is now vastly worse off than before.
2) students move into more rentals and your problem just grew rather than shrank.

A lot of this slices me the wrong way as someone who has lived in Narragansett for pretty much my entire life, and my family has lived here over 40 years. Here's the approach. My grandparents were one of the original homeowners in Eastward Look back in 1978. This was the home they had moved into after living on Federal Hill and moving into "God's Country" down here. Back 40 years ago, roughly until about 25ish years ago, Eastward Look was predominatly a family neighborhood. There were a total of 3 busses coming into the plat, with each going to the 3 schools in Narragansett (NES, NPS, NHS).

Lo and behold the mid 90s rolled around, out of town investors started coming in. Scooping up houses AT CASH. As they're still doing. They took my what was my grandparents 3 bedroom house was into a SIX bedroom house. With a beer pong room! Talk about some smart marketing from some guy from Woonsocket who bought it! This was in 2008 that my grandparents' house sold, they both passed away in 2001 (grandpa) and 2007 (grandma). The intention of them buying their home over 40 years ago was to visualize a place where they would retire and where their ten grandchildren would come over for Sunday dinners. Memories I will cherish forever.

Ultimately, when Carothers became president of the university in 1990, he pushed the on campus party problem onto Narragansett. URI is NOT in Narragansett so it is not on the hands of Narragansett to discipline all of URI students. As much as I love URI, Narragansett will always be my first and foremost as my lifelong home. I get tired of the argument of people who say, "well people shouldn't have bought a house where students live".

Aside from the grocery stores, which are heavily traveled year round, there really isn't a URI hotspot anymore. Especially now that there's COVID, there isn't going to be any sort of big bar draw for this year. It isn't about the town trying to work with students, it's about the students working with town.

I am also a licensed Realtor and I can also tell you that the amount of people from NYC, etc. looking for year round rentals right now far surpasses what students are looking to spend. Commercial real estate in NYC is down about $10 billion +since I last checked since organizations are not renewing their leases and everyone can work remote. I'd rather rent my place out for $X to a yearly rental guaranteed than rent my place out for $X to a student.

Narragansett has always been fiscally conservative, so a downtick or uptick in student rentals wouldn't really matter in theory only because a lot of the high end summer homes are not rented out to students. If they are rented out, it's called "shoulder season", which is a late spring or early fall rental class - they pay big money to rent houses on Ocean Rd. Taxes here aren't dependent on URI student rentals.

[section(105)]

.......4-1 the Council passed the three college student renters.....thanks Council, long time coming.....hopefully the next Council does not reverse course......and I will be supporting those a Council candidates that support this ordinance.....

[ramster]

I have never understood the town of Narragansett when it comes to their approach with students.
If students decide that maxing 3 people per house PLUS the orange sticker law limiting house parties of any size PLUS lack of bars to go to, is too much BS to deal with for living close to a beach you use maybe for 2 weeks a year, they can start looking at other places to rent houses (matunuck, charlestown, different areas of south Kingstown, North Kingstown, etc) then Narragansett is shot.
Ask people from the Jersey shore what it is like down there in the winter when there aren't thousands of students to help bulster the economy. Narragansett has a large population and SK being so close helps, but how many of those business survive if there are no students? What happens to prive value on all of those houses if they cant be rented throughout the winter? What happens to your tax base?
I understand the issues students bring, but there's 3 places these students are primarily concentrated. Old Eastward, New Eastward, Bonnet shores. I lived at the Pier for a semester and wouldnt do it again because not enough students around, always had to drive to eastward. Figure out better ways to work with students in those neighborhoods.
You limit the amount of people per house you will get two outcomes:
1) students leave and your town is now vastly worse off than before.
2) students move into more rentals and your problem just grew rather than shrank.

A lot of this slices me the wrong way as someone who has lived in Narragansett for pretty much my entire life, and my family has lived here over 40 years. Here's the approach. My grandparents were one of the original homeowners in Eastward Look back in 1978. This was the home they had moved into after living on Federal Hill and moving into "God's Country" down here. Back 40 years ago, roughly until about 25ish years ago, Eastward Look was predominatly a family neighborhood. There were a total of 3 busses coming into the plat, with each going to the 3 schools in Narragansett (NES, NPS, NHS).

Lo and behold the mid 90s rolled around, out of town investors started coming in. Scooping up houses AT CASH. As they're still doing. They took my what was my grandparents 3 bedroom house was into a SIX bedroom house. With a beer pong room! Talk about some smart marketing from some guy from Woonsocket who bought it! This was in 2008 that my grandparents' house sold, they both passed away in 2001 (grandpa) and 2007 (grandma). The intention of them buying their home over 40 years ago was to visualize a place where they would retire and where their ten grandchildren would come over for Sunday dinners. Memories I will cherish forever.

Ultimately, when Carothers became president of the university in 1990, he pushed the on campus party problem onto Narragansett. URI is NOT in Narragansett so it is not on the hands of Narragansett to discipline all of URI students. As much as I love URI, Narragansett will always be my first and foremost as my lifelong home. I get tired of the argument of people who say, "well people shouldn't have bought a house where students live".

Aside from the grocery stores, which are heavily traveled year round, there really isn't a URI hotspot anymore. Especially now that there's COVID, there isn't going to be any sort of big bar draw for this year. It isn't about the town trying to work with students, it's about the students working with town.

I am also a licensed Realtor and I can also tell you that the amount of people from NYC, etc. looking for year round rentals right now far surpasses what students are looking to spend. Commercial real estate in NYC is down about $10 billion +since I last checked since organizations are not renewing their leases and everyone can work remote. I'd rather rent my place out for $X to a yearly rental guaranteed than rent my place out for $X to a student.

Narragansett has always been fiscally conservative, so a downtick or uptick in student rentals wouldn't really matter in theory only because a lot of the high end summer homes are not rented out to students. If they are rented out, it's called "shoulder season", which is a late spring or early fall rental class - they pay big money to rent houses on Ocean Rd. Taxes here aren't dependent on URI student rentals.

Taylor,
Well said and I agree on out of state interest in Rhode Island Properties in Narragansett and especially waterfront properties throughout the state
Massachusetts and NY people are buying up waterfront properties. With ability to work from home and telecommute people are choosing ideal locations - work, vacation, living all in one.
How do you see VRBO and AIRBNB impacting real estate in Narragansett and South County? More interest and higher prices than before these companies existed?
I know some real estate companies rent out homes/condos too but I wonder if AIRBNB pushes them out or they coexist.
I agree an area like Narragansett could become tray round with students going elsewhere long term.

Here’s a photo I took last week in Narragansett.

[theblueram]

.......4-1 the Council passed the three college student renters.....thanks Council, long time coming.....hopefully the next Council does not reverse course......and I will be supporting those a Council candidates that support this ordinance.....

Well, those council members that tried to sell the library building are gone, so those three won't be back.

[Taylor Swift]

I have never understood the town of Narragansett when it comes to their approach with students.
If students decide that maxing 3 people per house PLUS the orange sticker law limiting house parties of any size PLUS lack of bars to go to, is too much BS to deal with for living close to a beach you use maybe for 2 weeks a year, they can start looking at other places to rent houses (matunuck, charlestown, different areas of south Kingstown, North Kingstown, etc) then Narragansett is shot.
Ask people from the Jersey shore what it is like down there in the winter when there aren't thousands of students to help bulster the economy. Narragansett has a large population and SK being so close helps, but how many of those business survive if there are no students? What happens to prive value on all of those houses if they cant be rented throughout the winter? What happens to your tax base?
I understand the issues students bring, but there's 3 places these students are primarily concentrated. Old Eastward, New Eastward, Bonnet shores. I lived at the Pier for a semester and wouldnt do it again because not enough students around, always had to drive to eastward. Figure out better ways to work with students in those neighborhoods.
You limit the amount of people per house you will get two outcomes:
1) students leave and your town is now vastly worse off than before.
2) students move into more rentals and your problem just grew rather than shrank.

A lot of this slices me the wrong way as someone who has lived in Narragansett for pretty much my entire life, and my family has lived here over 40 years. Here's the approach. My grandparents were one of the original homeowners in Eastward Look back in 1978. This was the home they had moved into after living on Federal Hill and moving into "God's Country" down here. Back 40 years ago, roughly until about 25ish years ago, Eastward Look was predominatly a family neighborhood. There were a total of 3 busses coming into the plat, with each going to the 3 schools in Narragansett (NES, NPS, NHS).

Lo and behold the mid 90s rolled around, out of town investors started coming in. Scooping up houses AT CASH. As they're still doing. They took my what was my grandparents 3 bedroom house was into a SIX bedroom house. With a beer pong room! Talk about some smart marketing from some guy from Woonsocket who bought it! This was in 2008 that my grandparents' house sold, they both passed away in 2001 (grandpa) and 2007 (grandma). The intention of them buying their home over 40 years ago was to visualize a place where they would retire and where their ten grandchildren would come over for Sunday dinners. Memories I will cherish forever.

Ultimately, when Carothers became president of the university in 1990, he pushed the on campus party problem onto Narragansett. URI is NOT in Narragansett so it is not on the hands of Narragansett to discipline all of URI students. As much as I love URI, Narragansett will always be my first and foremost as my lifelong home. I get tired of the argument of people who say, "well people shouldn't have bought a house where students live".

Aside from the grocery stores, which are heavily traveled year round, there really isn't a URI hotspot anymore. Especially now that there's COVID, there isn't going to be any sort of big bar draw for this year. It isn't about the town trying to work with students, it's about the students working with town.

I am also a licensed Realtor and I can also tell you that the amount of people from NYC, etc. looking for year round rentals right now far surpasses what students are looking to spend. Commercial real estate in NYC is down about $10 billion +since I last checked since organizations are not renewing their leases and everyone can work remote. I'd rather rent my place out for $X to a yearly rental guaranteed than rent my place out for $X to a student.

Narragansett has always been fiscally conservative, so a downtick or uptick in student rentals wouldn't really matter in theory only because a lot of the high end summer homes are not rented out to students. If they are rented out, it's called "shoulder season", which is a late spring or early fall rental class - they pay big money to rent houses on Ocean Rd. Taxes here aren't dependent on URI student rentals.

Taylor,
Well said and I agree on out of state interest in Rhode Island Properties in Narragansett and especially waterfront properties throughout the state
Massachusetts and NY people are buying up waterfront properties. With ability to work from home and telecommute people are choosing ideal locations - work, vacation, living all in one.
How do you see VRBO and AIRBNB impacting real estate in Narragansett and South County? More interest and higher prices than before these companies existed?
I know some real estate companies rent out homes/condos too but I wonder if AIRBNB pushes them out or they coexist.
I agree an area like Narragansett could become tray round with students going elsewhere long term.

Here’s a photo I took last week in Narragansett.
D74EA681-2F55-4DCA-AAA9-6A98AE8D5B05.jpeg

Out of state investors started scooping up properties in Eastward Look 20-30 years ago. Now with this pandemic, and, yes, everyone working from home, they all want to get out of dodge and live in RI. Homes in Narragansett are going under contract in less than a day THOUSANDS over asking price. I know of a small 650sq ft condo that was listed as $250k, went under a day for $275k.

I cannot stand the concept of VBRO and AIRBNB. Mostly because I wouldn't want some random person staying in my house. I have a friend who does AirBNB and she's actually selling her home because she said all the NY people are pains in the asses (like the towel isn't fluffy enough or some BS like that).

I have friends who live in their family homes, and they said nothing is more irritating than the AirBnB people showing up every night. It is mostly private people (a FEW real estate firms) who get involved with AirBnB and VRBO.

A lot of condos in Narragansett do NOT allow weekly or even summer rentals. As they shouldn't. That's what hotels are for.

[phipsiGD'11]

A few things, and I state these things knowing people on this board have a much different emotional attachment than I do to Gansett, but I do love the town and always will but I'm not a resident.

My point about the economy of Narragansett was more to do with the businesses and not the financial strength of the town. Although I do believe that without students the financial stability of the town will be affected because if the students aren't there to go to bars/restaurants/stores, those business are missing a significant source of revenue that has been present for 9 months of the year.

I'm not sure I understand the discussion about out of staters now buying and renting in the town. What would you like Narragansett to be? If it was a summer escape for people and a student town in winter, but you don't want it to be a student town in the winter; and now it's apparently transforming into a year round area because of Covid but it is because of out of staters, what do you want Narragansett to be?

Also, with out of staters comes an influx of money. Especially if they are moving there due to Covid. Not just grocery/restaurant/store money, they will be bringing money in the form of businesses. If there is one thing the state needs is economic growth.

Maybe it is just me, but I look at real estate as an investment. I would hope people don't buy houses and say "well maybe this mortgage I'm paying will help benefit me financially later on in life". And if you do look at a house as an investment, I could argue there weren't many better places to buy than in Gansett in the past 10-15 years.

Also for the record, the three years I lived in Gansett all houses were own by people from Rhose Island.

What I would be more concerned about, than if 4 or 5 students live on the same house, is the over development that has taken place in places like the Pier and by Scarborough (which it seems like is being done by Rhode Islanders).

I'd be interested to understand what the town council's vision is for Narragansett 10 years from now. Especially if you are trying to rid yourself of thousands of students for 9 months out of the year.

Be careful what you wish for. Look at what the Jersey shore towns are like outside of the summer. They have a much healthier summer economy, and are much closer to many strong economic hubs yet everything closes down in the winter.

[section(105)]

.......like the action SK is taking to reduce large social gatherings off campus......wonder if Gansett TC is thinking of something similar.......

[section(105)]

........now the SK TC has clarified their exec order to eliminate the target of student gatherings and made it more general toward all SK residents......hey Gansett TC, you watching this?

[Taylor Swift]

........now the SK TC has clarified their exec order to eliminate the target of student gatherings and made it more general toward all SK residents......hey Gansett TC, you watching this?

This is being put in place because of COVID, and who is to say that they would lift it post-COVID (is that a thing?) and who says that they wouldn't want to reach this order beyond students?

I know students aren't a "protected class", but this most certainly is unconstitutional - freedom to assemble. So, if i had 15 people over and we did Yoga or were playing Pictionary, what's the legal definition of party? I could be fined? Are kids 18-22 who party who aren't in college exempt from the Executive Order?

Any attorney out there on KB please clarify if I'm wrong regarding 1A rights.

[section(105)]

......phase 3, I am pretty sure in phase 3 refers to social gatherings of any type to not exceed 15 people.....not that I agree.....but mask up, and distance......My up coming grand sons 4 year old birthday party is not exempt......if I lived in SK.....

[ramster]

[section(105)]

.......this forum that is being initiated by the Narragansett 2100 group could be a step in the right direction......maybe establishing a needed dialogue that will probably result in a word salad And few actionable Items that will make any significant improvements in quality of life in Narragansett neighborhoods.......but I do think URI reps in this forum have to step up more than they have in the past in that URI’s previous blind eye to the situation is not acceptable........

[Taylor Swift]

.......this forum that is being initiated by the Narragansett 2100 group could be a step in the right direction......maybe establishing a needed dialogue that will probably result in a word salad And few actionable Items that will make any significant improvements in quality of life in Narragansett neighborhoods.......but I do think URI reps in this forum have to step up more than they have in the past in that URI’s previous blind eye to the situation is not acceptable........

Don't get me started on 2100. Their interest is themselves, not residents of Narragansett.

Narragansett needs people who have vested interest in Narragansett as well as a freaking clue about URI to even be on any kind of URI/Narragansett coalition. A lot of these greedy landlords on 4+ properties where they stick kids in illegal basement bedrooms next to the oil tank.

[section(105)]

......if a bunk bed is next to the oil tank, then cha ching.......

[Taylor Swift]

......if a bunk bed is next to the oil tank, then cha ching.......

The 2100 people are not trying to create an open dialogue between the town and university. The head of it has a rental in Eastward that I heard first hand is a complete dump that has never been updated. It's ALL landlords ALL looking to squeeze kids into 8 bedroom homes (which I guess they can't anymore after this year). There are some year round residents in the 2100 group, but they're the Cranston types who all transplanted here within the past 10 years.

[section(105)]

.......wonder how many state reps/senators own a rental house in Town......?

[Taylor Swift]

.......wonder how many state reps/senators own a rental house in Town......?

The ones who do use it for their own use. They're not renting to students (based on my understanding, unless you know something else?)

I hope in your neck of the woods you and your wife aren't dealing with any malarkey. You both know where to find me.

[section(105)]

......we shall see what we shall see, I my neck of the woods, anytime ground is broken for a foundation or an addition gets started my antenna goes up......

[phipsiGD'11]

As a nonresident who owns no real estate in Gansett (yet), I am still struggling to understand what the town residents and town board want this town to be.

It doesn't seem as if any restrictions have been put in place to curb the building of monsterous single family homes that appear to be marketed solely as summer properties from outsiders. Is that what is wanted for the local businesses and economy?

If you do not want student rentals in the town, what is the plan to replace the revenue the town and the businesses that is gained from having thousands of renters in the area?

What is the goal for this town? And how do you get there?

[section(105)]

......hopefully the houses that would no longer be rentals in the density they currently are in some sections would be purchased by families taking up year round residency......

[phipsiGD'11]

......hopefully the houses that would no longer be rentals in the density they currently are in some sections would be purchased by families taking up year round residency......

I understand that would be the situation in an ideal world, and maybe that will happen to a degree in this new "Work From Home" world. BUT, what information or data is there to support that it will happen? AND, if that is the long term goal, why wouldn't the town put in place stricter building codes to create more affordable houses rather than allowing developers to continue to build mansions and mcmansions?

I don't think there is currently a strong enough economy in the region to support Narragansett as a town of year round residents. I think they are going to look back at this ordinance and realize they were cutting off the nose to spite the face.

[phipsiGD'11]

And just for the record, I've told my wife countless times that if my industry could "Work From Home", or if my company moved deeper into CT such as New London, that I would want to move to Narragansett.

[UCH21377]

With the real estate market cooking the way it is right now the homes could easily sell to year round residents. But there is more money to be made renting the houses out. If landlords don’t follow the rules now they will find a way to bend the new rule as well. Plus raise the rent for students who don’t have many other options for housing.

[phipsiGD'11]

With the real estate market cooking the way it is right now the homes could easily sell to year round residents. But there is more money to be made renting the houses out. If landlords don’t follow the rules now they will find a way to bend the new rule as well. Plus raise the rent for students who don’t have many other options for housing.

Are we sure the houses are being purchased as year round residences and not just a flood of "buy places outside NYC we can escape to every now and then"? It will be interesting to see. A lot of good case studies will be done on this time period 20 years from now.

[phipsiGD'11]

If they are all year round, i hope the school system is ready for the influx.
My Uncle lives in VT. The local school of about 1500 added over 150 kids due to new residents. 10% increase in one summer. Thats not an easy adjustment.

[UCH21377]

Interesting points. As far as school systems go, SK and Narragansett should merge, but that will never happen.

[section(105)]

......are not the Gansett schools under capacity now......?......all sorts of mergers, regionalization, and shared governmental services should be done.......good luck with That even being seriously studied.......not in R.I......unfortunately

[phipsiGD'11]

Interesting points. As far as school systems go, SK and Narragansett should merge, but that will never happen.

These are ideas and issues the town council should be discussing if they want to change the general makeup of their residents. Luckily other services in the town are fully prepared since they are used to serving large populations. I just don't know there is enough of an economy to keep a year round population at a similar capacity that the students bring. The average family size in American is just above 3 people. Replacing 6 people residences within college ages with a family of 3 is not sustainable long term unless you have a way to get large business in town, or creating mixed housing. Neither of those are being done.

It's not an easy solution and will take decades (and great leadership). Good luck and hopefully I'll be one of those year rounders by then, although it will be over my wife's dead body.