City Housing Ordinance Causes Students Distress

In 2008, the San Marcos City Council enacted a zoning ordinance, similar to many adopted by college towns across the nation; one that effectively restricted the number of college students who could reside together in a single residence. The ordinance specifically states "the number of unrelated people who may occupy a home is limited."

College towns restrict unrelated roommates to two, up to as many as eight. Some cities have special multi-family zones; others have designated subdivisions for college students. Many prefer to zone for single-family residences, leaving college students to feel unwelcome – at least in the residential portion of the city.

In 2009, students began realizing that the San Marcos zoning ordinance was inconvenient and expensive for students. When they couldn’t split the rent three or four ways, they realized the ordinance created a hardship on their already meager student budgets. In the spring of 2010, two Texas State Mass Comm majors decided to check further into the ordinance and the opinions of students on the ordinance.

On the following pages, we’ll meet up with those two seniors, talk with city officials, uncover information about zoning ordinances in other college towns, compare college town ordinances, and review some of the statistics revealed by the survey conducted in April of 2010.

Site last updated: May 10, 2010

Co-produced by: Maureen Schein and Jessica Garcia.