In a Fargo neighborhood where some residents worry converted rental housing is threatening their school's future, the city's six mayoral candidates Thursday pitched their solutions to the issue.
Roosevelt Neighborhood Association President Phil Stahl said single-family homes converted to rental housing is the top issue facing the northside neighborhood. The group organized the debate with the Horace Mann, Hawthorne and Clara Barton neighborhood associations.
"We are by far the most affected by rental housing," Stahl said, adding the neighborhood adjacent to North Dakota State University now has about a 50-50 mix of single-family and rental houses.
"It's a domino effect - the more rental housing, the fewer kids we have," he said.
Candidates offered myriad opinions on how best to address the issue.
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J.J. Gordon, who rents an apartment and has friends in dorms who want to move into a home, said if someone wants to turn an existing home into a business through renting, "I don't feel that they should be limited to do so."
"But I think that we as a community should all have the knowledge beforehand" and be able to protest it, he said.
Dennis Walaker, on his first day off after retiring as Fargo's public works director, said the biggest problem is the city allows landlords to pave their front yards to provide parking for multiple tenants - a provision he said "should be removed entirely."
"Control the cars, control the parking, and then you can control the neighborhood," he said.
City Commissioner John Cosgriff told the audience of about 65 people that the city has "aggressively pursued" converted units through a housing code enforcement team.
"We've become much more restrictive and we will continue to work on that and convert some of the problems into viable units and not allow other units to go into the more troublesome units," he said.
Richard Blair, president of the Fargo Broadcasting Co., said the city should discourage rental conversions and emphasize more home ownership.
Fargo School Board member Arlette Preston said that while the city must diligently enforce housing codes, it also must address student housing availability.
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"And working with NDSU in trying to figure out a better situation for housing for students may help alleviate this," she said.
Attorney Brad Swenson agreed, saying, "Anything the city can do to work collectively with NDSU to house students, I think, is a very good step forward."
Preston and Cosgriff both stressed the importance of continuing the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, which offers residents incentives to renovate houses they own or plan to purchase.
Candidates also were asked if they would favor changing the at-large City Commission structure so that members are elected by wards, as Moorhead does.
Cosgriff, Gordon, Swenson and Walaker all said they support the current structure.
Preston said she likes Cass County's system, in which commissioners must live in separate districts but are elected by the county as a whole.
Blair was the only one to support electing candidates from wards, noting that, at one time, four of the five city commissioners lived within blocks of each other.
"Every portion of the city would be better represented," he said.
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Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
