The potential looming moratorium on student homes was the hot button topic at last Monday’s Orono Town Council meeting, where the subject was opened for public input. Students and town residents gathered to make their thoughts known to the council, which will take all of the comments back in the hopes that it can better inform their work as they struggle with whether or not to implement such measures.

The town brought the option of a moratorium to the table early in September to address concerns that the number of family homes in Orono is getting too low because they are being bought and converted into homes for students. If a moratorium were to be implemented, the conversion of homes on the market into student homes would cease for six to 12 months while the council figures out how to set about changing the land use ordinance to accommodate both parties.

This is nothing new, according to Town Planner Evan Richert. Over the last 10 years has seen a precipitous drop in the number of single family-occupied homes in the town, resulting in a decrease of property values.

“The town is pretty consistently trying to find the right balance between having students be part of our neighborhoods, part of our town as the lifeblood of this community, and making sure that property values and the numbers of homes with families is stable,” Richert said.

“Don’t ban them from neighborhoods, they’re welcome in neighborhoods, they just can’t dominate neighborhoods,” Richert said.

After Richert’s opening address, the subject was opened up for public comment. Each side of the debate was supported by an equal number of people, with families tending to be for the moratorium while students and multi-property owners were against the moratorium.

“I don’t have anything against students, I was a student myself. I believe almost anyone in this room has been a student and I know if there had been an ordinance against student housing when I was in graduate school I would have been homeless. But we want to preserve the family nature of our neighborhood,” said University of Maine Associate Professor of Accounting Steven Colburn. “We like that family feeling.”

Colburn, who has lived with his family on Mainwood Avenue for the last 13 years was one of many families who noticed the drop in family residences and wants the balance to swing back the other way. Several townspeople also expressed concern about some of the behaviour of students who move into these homes and don’t maintain them.

Undergraduate and graduate students at the University were on hand to give their thoughts, something that has been missing in past meetings.

“Since we closed on that house in the spring of my freshman year, I have learned a lot about how to manage a household, about how to take care of a household and it has been nothing but a phenomenal experience for me,” said Jay Knowlton, a fourth-year undergraduate student. “I would hate for that to be inhibited for anyone else in the future.”

In the summer before his sophomore year, Knowlton was looking for a housing option off campus and, after realizing that he would not like The Grove or other similar complexes, he settled on a house that he purchased with the help of his father.

Charles Rodda is a doctoral student and serves as the Graduate Student Senate’s representative to the University of Maine System board of trustees. Having lived in Orono since 2005, Rodda offered his opinion on the moratorium.

“I very much discourage you putting a moratorium in place that might affect those few students that really do need to make a change in their housing situation over the next few months,” Rodda said. “There’s not an emergency you need to prevent right now.”

Rodda also pointed out that with the lack of student housing on campus, a moratorium would only make things more difficult for students.

Property owners, such as Joanne McKinnon, who rents out homes to both students and families, feels that it is unfair to discriminate against students and that the problem should be solved through other means.

“If you want to affect who buys a house when they turn over, I think you need something more effective than this rule,” McKinnon said.

The council will take what they have heard and continue to deliberate the moratorium.