Comments about ‘Controversial state zoning laws subject of Provo town hall meeting’

These 2 bills were pushed through on the sly by the Realtors association, absentee landlords and various developers. Don't think for a minute that these organizations don't have an impact on your own neighborhood.

They strip the ability of cities to regulate rental housing to make it safer. They strip the ability of a city government to correct zoning mistakes of the past through amortization programs.

Send your kids to BYU? Don't expect Provo City to make sure their apartment has adequate sized windows for egress, or smoke detectors, or Carbon Monoxide detectors. Thank your state legislator...

@John P - See, this is the problem. You have no clue what you're talking about yet you speak as if an authoriy. Come to the meeting this evening and learn what the legislation actually does and what it doesn't do.

One more example of our state legislators taking over local control.

They cry and cry about the feds taking over state's rights then they go and do something like this.

Practice what you preach for a change.

In fact CHANGE is a good word.

Let's practice that at the next election.

Provo zoning policies have forced all single students to live in a very small area. The laws of supply and demand have driven rent through the roof in these areas while the rest of the area has much lower rental rates.

Provo has an irrational hostility towards the BYU student population. BYU brings millions, it not billions, into the Utah Valley economy each year. Provo should be grateful, but they are not.

If they think BYU students create problems they should experience life near Texas A&M, Washington State University or some other known party school.

I would love to see a move on the BYU campus to get the students involved in local politics. I bet they could elect at least two people to the city council.

This is like the big kid who picks on the little kid. The little kid, instead of having empathy for others, finds an even littler kid to pick on. The Feds are interfering with Utah's state land use rights (Grand Staircase, Salazar's reversal of mining bids), so instead of working to protect the rights of the little guy, the State of Utah takes away the rights of cities. I don't live in Utah County, but I'm sure we're next (state school board by legislature, for example). I'm with Orem Parent. We need to vote out anyone who votes for these types of bills.

Its not the Provo zoning that makes BYU students live in a small area its BYU's rules. BYU does not treat their students all that well. BYU = A joke.

That said I do have to agree that Provo hates students and profits from them greatly. They love to take advantage of them because they know they can and students don't stick around like their permanent residents. They don't have to take care of the students and they don't.

I meant to say BYU housing = a joke.

The school itself isn't so bad.

It may suprise many of you, but this might actually be a good thing for some of the neighborhoods in Provo. Some people could benefit greatly from renting out a spare room in exchange for help around the house. It is not like BYU is know for it's all night keggers and wild parties. Provo is so terrified by students when so many of its residents used to be students.

I usually stand on the side of the smaller government, but in this case, I feel like the state may have needed to step in. Having lived in Provo, as a non-BYU student, the zoning laws pretty much insured that you had to live in one of the apartment complexes. I have wondered if the council members aren't in the pockets of the business owners who own the complexes. I'm not saying that's how it is, just questioning.

The State bills are merely trying to put the genie back in the bottle!! The Provo City Council is in the back pocket of big developers, and passed laws which prohibited families from renting out rooms or basement apartments in order to funnel more students to the developer's complexes. These laws were passed despite loud opposition from people who had counted on renting out a spare room or two to college kids.

The because the City was so patently biased in favor the developers and their big money contributions, private property owners went to their state legislators. Now the City is crying that the State is usurping their authority, when in reality, they don't want their clout with their big pocketed corporate interests harmed. If you believe in property rights at all, a homeowner should have the opportunity to rent out a spare room or basement apartment.

I know this from first hand experience. My single mom lives close to BYU and built a basement apartment in the anticipation of renting it out to some girl BYU students in order to make ends meet. Fast forward to new zoning laws! It sits empty.

I don't understand how governments get away with discriminating in housing against young people. If they targeted these kinds of laws towards seniors, it would never fly.

Did Bramble not know there was a University in his home city?

I didn't agree with Provo's zoning law change. However it is worse to see how the big state government has its way with taking away the local government's power. Bramble needs to be sent packing. I am pretty certain he knew he was betraying the local government when he voted for such a narrowly focused law.

Everyone needs to understand that all cities in the State of Utah that all cities are political subdivisions of the State. This is how it differs from the example of the federal governemt. The states made the fed but the cities didn't make the state.

I say this so everyone gets that although you'd like to think that it's the same, it's not.

I also think we should treat this for what it is. Bramble and Lockhart are more on fact-finding missions than anything else. Neither was the primary sponsor although both supported the bills' passage.

I find it ironically hypocritical that the prior city leaders and special interest neighbors felt they had the privilege of trampling individual owner and tenant rights, yet now are claiming that the State and other allegedly special interest groups are trampling their rights.

One thing some in Provo fail to realize is that this law was actually targeted at many cities throughout the state, not Provo specifically. Many cities were taking the lazy route to addressing tenant problems. Rather than regulating behavior, they were instead literally changing the definition of the family in their city code (ironically the same issue being fought nationally).

Landlords can't discriminate against protected classes, instead they adopt rules that regulate the behavioral impact of all tenants. Similarly, the State has prevented cities from discriminating against classes but left the door open for the cities to adopt laws to regulate behavior. I would invite the cities to take advantage of that guideline provided.

This is a local issue period. The state legislature has no business regulating how many people can live in a local residence.

Just as the federal government oversteps states rights on a regular basis, our state legislature regularly oversteps on county and city government rights. There is NOTHING conservative about these bills.

They should acknowledge the negative concequences in these bills and repeal them. If these are indeed issues that need to be addressed, let the local cities address them themselves.

The City and the State do not own the Property and should butt out.
It is none of their business.
Ordinances that reflect ownership of others property is illegal.

Conservative Veteran:

Thanks for your service, but with all due respect these bills ARE conservative because they give back property rights to the actual property owners, but allowing them to decide the highest and best use of their own property that they paid for and have title for, within reason.

As a staunch conservative myself, we can't allow a knee jerk reaction whenever the State is involved, but should consider each issue on its merits. Sometimes, the State's distance allows it to be more impartial than the city politicians, who are overly dependent on special interest contributions in small town races.

Legally, Municipalities only have as much power as the state gives them through enabling statutes. The State in these cases has the ultimate say in what a city can and can't do, including its zoning laws. As a federal system, States have the authority to make these kinds of laws. There is nothing Provo City can do, outside getting the law changed, do stop this.

By the way, Provo's zoning is ridiculous, the legislature did the right thing here, overriding ridiculous local municipalities.

All I know is that Provo now has at least two schools (probably more) where English is the second language.

Nothing against those people here legally.

The situation was created when BYU changed the housing rules and many of the old landlords were left with basement apartments to fill.

The average family would never live there but it is heaven for a small immigrant family trying to get by.

That is exactly what has happened in Provo.

These bills do nothing to fix that.

In fact these bills will probably make it worse.

I meant to say Provo has two schools where a majority of the students speak english as their second language.