A Portage County judge has dealt a blow to Kent’s housing code, calling at least part of it “unconstitutional.” This time, the target is a prohibition against landlords renting to more than two unrelated people.
At issue is the city’s 2022 denial of a rental license for landlord Reed Havel’s property at 248 Columbus St. Havel wished to use the six-bedroom property as his mother had: to house up to four unrelated individuals.
In her Jan. 30 ruling, Judge Laurie Pittman backed Havel, noting that the City of Kent “seemed to disregard” its own zoning code, which defines a dwelling unit or dwelling as “intended for use by ‘a single family, a household unit, or three or more unrelated individuals.’”
Court records indicate that the city based its denial on that same zoning code, which it says prohibits more than two unrelated individuals from occupying a single family dwelling in a high-density residential district.
In an email to The Portager, Kent Community Development Director Bridget Susel stated definitions in the zoning code cannot be applied to any single property when determining how it may be used.
The definitions, however, exist, and Pittman seemed to rely upon them.
The city’s zoning code defines a dwelling unit as “any room or group of rooms located within a dwelling and forming a residential household unit with facilities that are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking and eating, with a restroom(s) and bathing facility(ies) to be utilized by a family, a household unit … or three or more unrelated individuals.”
Since the code further defines a household unit as a family, a single family and one unrelated individual, a single individual, or two unrelated individuals; or any of the four designations and a caregiver or caregivers residing in a dwelling unit, the city’s stance is that that means no more than two unrelated individuals can live in a single dwelling unit, Susel stated, adding that the city intends to file a notice of appeal while evaluating its next step.
The city also pointed to a city ordinance that it said prohibits rooming houses in the R-3 High-Density Residential District, defining rooming houses as residential buildings originally built as single family or two family dwellings, but which the Planning Commission or Community Development Department later approved to house between three and 15 unrelated individuals.
High-density residential districts are spaced throughout the city, and are meant to encourage single-family residential development in areas where there are high densities of housing: the aim, according to Kent’s zoning code, being to provide “a more orderly and efficient extension of public facilities.”
The city suggested that if Havel wanted to use the house for more than two unrelated people, he would have to establish a nonconforming use, which the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals then denied.
Havel continued an appeals process that eventually landed in Portage County Common Pleas Court.
Havel’s attorney, Chad Murdock, declined to comment.
Havel is not the first Kent landlord to challenge the city’s laws that limit who may occupy a rental unit. Last year New Era Rentals and 644 South Water Street, respectively owned by Brandon Pearl and James Pearl, were both denied rental licenses.
Both men, the city stated, were renting properties zoned as single-family dwellings
to more than two unrelated individuals. Specifically, both men were renting to four unrelated people.
Their case remains open in Portage County Common Pleas Court.
Additional landlords have objected to the city tying their rental licenses to property inspections and to being fined if inspections were not scheduled and completed. One such lawsuit was settled out of court, with the inspections and fines being canceled. A second lawsuit was settled in Nov. 2023, again with the fines being canceled and repaid, and Kent paying court costs and the plaintiffs’ attorney fees totaling $23,240.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.