The white and green, four-bedroom house a block away from the University of Montana holds more than its four twentysomething renters. It has become the locus of the community's dispute between homeowners and renters, traditional neighborhoods and property rights, quality of life and freedom of choice.
Leaseholder Steve Marlenee says the conflict with his neighbors started almost the day he moved in at 636 Evans, back in January 2003. But the conflict leaped citywide last week after some of those neighbors learned Marlenee's landlords, Brad and Adina Roe, intended to build a second house in the back yard.
But what moved the testimony beyond the block was the Roes' request for a boundary line relocation that would produce a second buildable lot on the property. Brad Roe owns nine rental properties in Missoula, and has done a similar lot division for a backyard house just a block away from 636 Evans.
"If these problems already exist, think of what they'll be like when doubled," Evans Avenue resident Jean King wrote in a letter read to the City Council on Monday evening. "We're not objecting to housing university students. Our concern is with the negligence of the landowner. We're also concerned about deterioration of property values."
"None of us obviously dislike students," Evans Avenue neighbor Lois Jarka testified last Monday. "And yet the students living in Mr. Roe's house are making life miserable for all of us. They're packed in a house too small for them, with a damp, moldy basement without egress windows. If students are the victims of such neglect and greed, why should they have respect for the neighborhood if the man who is taking their money doesn't?"
The Roes declined a request to be interviewed for this story, although Adina Roe answered questions before the council's Plat, Annexation and Zoning Committee last Wednesday. They are expected to return for more debate at next Wednesday's committee session, according to chairman John Engen of Ward 1.
But Marlenee and his roommates were happy to talk about their view of the situation.
"I'm really at a loss at what people were thinking when they moved into this neighborhood," said Marlenee, a 22-year-old microbiology student. "It's bewildering to me why it's unacceptable for college kids to be living in a neighborhood next to the college."
The home at 636 Evans is in the University Neighborhood, but houses like it exist throughout Missoula. City leaders have struggled for years with the results of a 1999 policy decision and legal opinion that, according to critics, is transforming family-owned neighborhoods into slipshod rental ghettos.
In a nutshell, the argument holds that the loss of a "family definition" occupancy standard spurred the conversion of single-family homes into rentals. These tend to be filled with cash-rich students, driving young families out of the housing market. Meanwhile, city infill-development policies have made it easier to build new homes in old neighborhoods. Those homes often don't match the existing style, with smaller yards, taller roofs, smaller lots and less parking. They tend to become rentals, furthering the cycle.
Policy defenders have two main points. Encouraging construction of smaller homes in the city core should provide more affordable housing stock and reduce urban sprawl. And property owners have a legal right to build what the law allows.
"There are a number of folks who just want a moratorium and just make this go away," Mayor Mike Kadas said last Monday about the controversial infill policies. "But I'm still convinced by state law and the constitution that there's a right to develop these types of properties. I'm not convinced a moratorium would be legal. We'd get ourselves in court and we'd have an excellent chance of losing."
As it is, the City Council is in court with one of its own members over the boundary line issue. Ward 4 Councilman Jerry Ballas has sued a neighbor for using the policy to add a second home on the lot next to his house, and he included the city government in the suit. That case was filed last October and is awaiting a judge's decision on the city's request to throw it out of court.
But 636 Evans may be a better test case, because it entwines more threads of a widespread Missoula controversy. Among those benefiting from those policies are Steve Marlenee and his roommates, who get a comfortable home at an affordable (if shared) price close to their classes.
"If they want that much control over their living conditions," Marlenee asked, "what are they doing living 300 yards from a university of 13,000 students? This might not be the best place for them to live. Maybe they should be in a gated community somewhere. If you had the opportunity in this neighborhood to split the lots and be able to make the mortgage, anybody with a sound business mind would jump on that. This is a free capitalist market."
But it's also a neighborhood that's grown up on a street grid laid down about 100 years ago. Most houses have spacious front and back yards, alley garages and very high prices, even by Missoula standards. The 2000 census found the area had a median home value of $154,200, although a quick look at real estate ads indicate a figure higher than $200,000.
Susan Gilmore spoke of getting married in her own Evans Avenue back yard, and of having no problems in the 20 years she'd lived there.
"Now it seems the new kid on the block is making all the rules," Gilmore told the City Council.
Like any good test case, the situation at 636 Evans juxtaposes a pack of competing values. For example, what's the difference between being disturbed by a loud party Friday night and being disturbed by a lawnmower Saturday morning? Is one kind of poor maintenance different from another?
Neighbors testified before the City Council that the renters in 636 Evans allowed a St. Bernard dog to stink up the yard, that the floors were water-stained and rotten, and that broken windows were left unrepaired for months. The front storm door glass is broken and patched with cardboard.
But Marlenee and other neighbors said 636 Evans was previously owned by a widower who let the lawn become a "hayfield" and whose leaking waterbed was responsible for the water-damaged floors. The Roes have owned the house for about a year and a half. In that time, Marlenee said, the Roes made numerous repairs but a backlog remains from the previous owner.
Neighbor Sharon O'Hare said she appreciated having young men in the area, adding they were always willing to help others move heavy furniture or shovel snowy walkways. And the renters have plowed over the back yard and planted new grass to repair the lawn.
At Wednesday's committee session, council members showed Adina Roe photos neighbors had taken of the house in disarray. Ward 5 Councilman Bob Lovegrove said in his former experience as a property manager, he would never let a rental get in such a condition.
"I beg to differ with you," Roe replied, saying she didn't think the photos gave an accurate portrayal of the house. "My husband and I go to great lengths to improve the properties we purchase. In other neighborhoods we have not experienced at all this kind of hostility. We feel we haven't been dealt with in good faith on this issue either."
What kind of behavior is unacceptable in a residential neighborhood? Marlenee said he decided to move to a rental house after 3 1/2 years living in the Sigma Nu fraternity house. As a microbiology student intending to go to medical school, he said he had "outgrown" the atmosphere of the dorms and fraternities.
His neighborhood opponents might find that ironic. Marlenee said he's had the police come to shut down a party at his house three times in a year and a half, which he thought was an acceptable level of disturbance. But compared to a neighbor who's never had a flashing light outside the living room window in decades, it's a shocking aberration.
One speaker at City Council testified how her bed-ridden husband was terrified to see 6-foot flames leaping above the wooden fence that separated his bedroom from the students' outdoor cookout. Other neighbors charged that the students' poor housekeeping attracted skunks. Gilmore told of being awakened at 3:45 a.m. on a recent weekend night and seeing eight young people driving drunk away from the house after a party. Police Quality of Life Officer Dick Lewis spoke of officers coming to shut down parties and seeing occupants lock the doors and refuse to identify themselves.
Marlenee denied inviting under-age friends to drink in his house, although he added he wasn't running a bar or carding people who came to his gatherings. He claimed he was willing to turn down the volume when asked, and also willing to take part in a neighborhood mediation effort set up by Lewis.
Marlenee added that he tried to invite all his neighbors to a housewarming get-together when he first moved in, and met almost complete rejection. He doesn't like having people taking pictures of his home and staring at his visitors. He said he's been reported to the police for allowing a Frisbee to hit a neighbor's wall, and to the fire department for lighting a barbecue.
Roommate Nick Aageson and other residents recounted how one neighbor would spit in their direction when he saw them.
"They've been after us from day one," Aageson said. "If we never raised our voices, never had more than three cars - if we lived like angels - I don't think the calls would stop."
"It's hard to know what's legitimate and what's not," Adina Roe told the PAZ Committee on Wednesday. "There's been a lot of aggressive behavior toward us and our tenants. I feel this is a unique situation. Our welcome wagon to that neighborhood was a hostile phone call from a neighbor. It seemed there was an agenda to create a paper trail from day one."
That response angered several council members Wednesday.
"Don't try to characterize anything going on at 636 Evans as trivial," Ward 6 Councilman Ed Childers told Roe. "The police department is ready to start issuing citations. Dick Lewis has dealt with lots of property owners. There's one time he's come to a place where there's no resolution he could come to, and you're it."
Ward 2 Councilwoman Anne Kazmierczak added that Brad Roe's employment as a Missoula City firefighter made the claims of building safety problems even harder to digest.
"I'm saddened to learn this property is owned by a city employee," Kazmierczak said. "To think one of them is out there encouraging situations that others have to take care of - I find it disgusting."
The PAZ Committee asked that the Roes' boundary line relocation request be held while it continued to investigate the matter. Coincidentally, council members are also working on law changes that would restrict property owners' ability to use boundary line relocations to create new house sites, and to limit the places where planned neighborhood cluster permits allow developers to deviate from traditional neighborhood designs. But both those changes must go through a lengthy review process, and aren't expected to come for a vote before summer.
Meanwhile, Marlenee said the controversy at 636 Evans has left a lasting impression on him.
"The neighborhood has done an effective job of chasing us out," he said. "I'd rather be back in the dorms, or not going to school at all."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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