Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Campus "Housing Gate" 2010 is getting ridiculous. Is this a joke?

In a recent LFCUG council meeting, the city council approved 4 of the 7 proposed measures to redefine what property owners can do with their property in Fayette County.  The four measures defined such things as boarding houses, congregate living,  and fraternity and sorority houses.

But, as the Lexington-Herald Leader pointed out, the most contentious measures have yet to be decided - most notably redefining family and functional family.  A functional family, according to this measure, would be anymore than four people unrelated by blood living in the same house.  This definition probably affects more student housing than anyone realizes.  In order to have four or more unrelated people living together, this "functional family" would need to apply for a conditional use permit.

Let me paint a picture for you:

Joe College is moving in with his buddies in some off campus housing.  Everyone works and is in school full time so they want to keep their rent low by getting five guys to live together. Joe learns that in order to do this, he needs a conditional use permit. Yes that's right, Joe has to get permission from the LFUCG to rent a place to live while he is in school and paying incredibly high out of state tuition.


So Joe and his buddies go to the next Board of Adjustment hearing which is held the last Friday of every month.  When Joe and his friends get ready to make their case in front of this panel for why they should be able to rent a space to live, they see that they are on camera.  Yes that's right.  These meetings are televised on GTV3, public access television where everyone in the Fayette County area can watch Joe and his buddies plea with the city to live together.  

How embarrassing.  How many college students do you know that have the time, money, and willingness to plead in front of city officials for a living space?  This isn't right.

Give me a break.

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