"It looks like we've got the makings of one of those perfect storms here," university-area resident Harold Hoem told the Plat, Annexation and Zoning Committee on Wednesday near the end of two hours of debate on the matter. 636 Evans hit the public radar last Monday when 18 neighbors used the council's regular public comment period to object to the renter's loud parties, and landlords Brad and Adina Roe's plan to build a second home in the back yard.
But as Wednesday's session went on, speakers created a growing list of city policies and legal questions that have been pitting Missoulians against one another for several years. There was the loss of an occupancy standard limiting how many unrelated people can live together. There was the question of how much the University of Montana can control the actions of students living off campus. There was the city administration's legal opinion that owners of multiple lots can turn their spare space into building sites, even if those spaces don't match underlying zoning rules.
"We apologize for having 40 people for the Final Four (college basketball tournament)," leaseholder Steve Marlenee told the committee and the audience Wednesday. "It was disrespectful of us."
But he went on to recount what he saw as a two-way street of neighborhood relations.
"I've really never heard anything from anybody, complaint-wise," Marlenee said. "Then all of a sudden it goes from 'I've heard nothing,' to the Roes ask for a boundary line adjustment and now I'm speaking (to the) City Council. I've never been issued a citation for my house. But I've been pulled over and breathalized and given a sobriety test for no reason other than I'm a college student living near the university."
Marlenee won thanks for his contrition, along with warnings it wasn't enough.
"This is way beyond 'boys will be boys,' " Ward 2 Councilman Don Nicholson told Marlenee. "This is where you guys need to be squeaky clean, whether it's right or wrong. It needs to be so clean it's virtually ridiculous. This should be a learning experience."
Ward 6 Councilman Ed Childers added that the fact Marlenee had received no criminal citations despite 13 reports to the police was immaterial. The city's Quality of Life enforcement program was intended to fix neighborhood disputes without sending people to court, he said. While some of the neighbors may "get a little hypersensitive," Childers said, "your job as people in the neighborhood is to try to fit in."
Landlord Brad Roe testified that that was harder than it seemed.
"This has been ongoing since we bought the place," Roe said of the bad relations with neighbors around 636 Evans. "When I bought the place, one neighbor called me and I was advised to move in a family with two children and a husband and wife, or we were going to have significant problems with the neighborhood."
Roe said he'd been able to acquire seven rental homes in the Missoula market on his city firefighter's salary because he looked for run-down properties and fixed them himself. In an interview with the Missoulian, he added that he'd purchased the 636 Evans house for $165,000 in a neighborhood where homes usually sell for $300,000 or more. The low cost, he said, was because the previous owner-occupant had allowed it to go to ruin.
Marlenee and other Roe clients backed up Roe's claim of being an attentive landlord who was quick to fix breakdowns.
But council members questioned whether Roe was attentive enough to neighborhood concerns and whether Marlenee and his roommates should have been evicted long ago. They also asked why city Quality of Life Officer Dick Lewis was having such a difficult time getting a response from Roe.
Roe responded that he had contacted Lewis about harassment from other neighbors, and that his renters were considering getting a restraining order against one who regularly spit on their cars and was seen snooping in their yard with a camera. He said it was his understanding there were no major problems with the house until this April, when he got a letter from Lewis warning him of the possibility of criminal charges being filed.
When the committee session turned to public comment, audience members moved the discussion far beyond what happened at 636 Evans.
"If this were a simple landlord/tenant matter, or tenant and neighbors matter, or simple student-renters/police matter, it would be much easier to discuss, said University of Montana ASUM program coordinator Judy Spanngel, "We've got infill and density issues. Emotions are running higher than they normally would."
The infill question comes from Roe's plan to split the 636 Evans lot in two and build a second house on the alley. Several speakers questioned why Missoula allowed such developments when it appeared other Montana cities prohibited the practice. Others called for a moratorium on boundary line adjustments until the legal issues can be fixed.
Ian Lange added that rentals in places like the university neighborhood caused other problems, such as excessive parking and depressed property values.
"This is not an anti-student issue," Lange told the committee. "The irony is the fact that residents have to fight the city with time and money to maintain their quality of life."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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