 "Photo: Stephanie Nehmens / Assistant City Editor")
College Area residents came out in full force as attendees overflowed the old firehouse on College Avenue during the Code Enforcement and Nuisance Rental Housing Committee meeting on Monday night.
The committee, which is part of the College Area Community Council, was brought back into action in November after being inactive for years, committee chair and CACC secretary Christina Vincent said.
Vincent and committee members held the meeting to address the events of last week's City Council Land Use and Housing Committee and whether to protest or stop the building of another possible mini-dorm house on Adams Avenue (off 54th Street).
Some neighbors are fed up with College Area housing. Many residents say developer and College Area real estate mogul Michael Haaland, who along with his partner, Ian Sells, have had a hand in more than 100 mini dorms in the area, is going to add another four bedrooms and two bathrooms to the existing two-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
"He's already poured the concrete slab," an Adams Avenue resident said. "He told me he could build a seven-bedroom house here and paint it pink if he wants to."
The resident said she prefers to remain anonymous because of the legal action she may take against Haaland.
A spokesman for Haaland said the house is actually going to be four bedrooms and is being remodeled in order to sell it.
Still, many College Area residents are concerned that their neighborhood is being destroyed.
They blame San Diego State for not providing enough housing for students as well as investors who convert their homes into mini-dorms and overcharge the tenants.
Some residents understand the situation of students and place more blame on landlords and developers.
"They are using students to make money," said Newell Booth, who has been a College Area resident since 1970. "But students need a place to live, and it's certainly competitive.
"I don't blame the students at all; we've never had a problem with our student neighbors."
Booth said he gets along with the younger neighbors partially because he and his wife introduce themselves and exchange phone numbers every time new residents move in. Booth said he's even helped them kick unwanted guests out of their parties.
"But, there needs to be more student housing," he said. "Right now, it's anarchy."
The Land Use and Housing Committee voted on March 7 to approve a proposal that allows not only neighborhood code compliance officers, but San Diego and SDSU police officers to hand out administrative tickets for up to $1,000.
R.D. Williams, director of communications and campus relations for Aztec Shops, said SDSU will be adding its own code compliance officer to handle the nuisance rental problems.
But those in attendance Monday night were less than enthused, saying that no matter what, SDSU does not provide enough housing for its students, and if the revised 2007 Campus Master Plan is approved, 10,000 more students will be enrolled at the university.
The plan includes the addition of 1,400 living spaces, which is not enough to house even 14 percent of the additional proposed student enrollment on campus.
"Forget the juniors and seniors; its still not adequate housing for freshmen and sophomores, and so if (SDSU) were to just take their freshmen, they're still under the curve," Vincent said. "If they only were a school of just their number of freshmen, they still don't have the housing for that."
College Area resident Steve Seus, who is also a board member of the College Neighborhood Foundation, said another reason student housing is scarce is that many apartment complexes have been made into condo-conversions, where people who want to live there must purchase the condominium. Students, however, are looking to rent and can only afford to lease an apartment, not purchase a home.
"The College Area Community Council has actually stopped approving condo-conversions because of this reason," Seus said.
-The CACC is holding a meeting at 7 p.m. today at the College-Rolando Library located at 6600 Montezuma Road. The meetings are open to the public.
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