The marketability of many income producing properties has been compromised by the City of DeKalb. Under current zoning law, many two, three, and multi-unit properties can now only be advertised and sold as single family residences. A house that has been an owner-occupied two flat for the past 50 years, must now be sold as a chopped up single family home requiring thousands of dollars to retrofit. It will sell for considerably less money while being more difficult to sell. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Would you like to know why? Read on.
In many of the older neighborhoods in DeKalb, there are homes that feature one, or more, small rental units. The City of DeKalb has zoned most residential neighborhoods as Single Family, Residential. The City treats these situations as legal, non-conforming properties. The City changed the way this zoning ordinance is applied to the property, however, and the legal, nonconforming use terminates upon sale of the property. This affects the marketability of these properties—going forward they cannot be sold as multi-family residences.
The City is contemplating a change to the zoning ordinance that would permit the legal, nonconforming use to remain after a property is sold. The Planning and Zoning Commission is considering this amendment, but leaning toward maintaining the status quo. That Commission is meeting tomorrow, August 23, 2017, at 6:00 pm to consider these issues. DeKalb Area Rental Association is asking all concerned parties—landlords, brokers, buyers, and sellers—to come and voice their opinion on this issue. I pass that invitation on to you and hope to see you there.
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8 Comments
Good reason to incorporate the property. Then you can pass it on to new owners without hassle.
Well that’s the way the City helps John rent all of his new apartments. By getting rid of the competition
I’m one of the people being displaced by the coming redevelopment between 2nd and 3rd streets.
What I was told by the buyer directly was completely contradicted and betrayed by his attempted actions regarding the building tenants prior to the building closing.
That makes me distrust him and wonder about something…. I keep hearing that there is a “waiting list” for the 51 apartments being built at 1st and Lincoln. And I keep wondering how many people are actually on the list? Is it full? Or is it just five it ten people? Does anyone know? Just curious.
Is the city planning on dropping the requirement for adequate parking for each rental unit now that certain developers are building ‘luxury’ (cough cough) apartments downtown?
Many of these properties are homes that the couple used the other unit to help pay bills and raise their family throughout the years.
These same people also counted on being able to sell that property when they retired and went on to enjoy that retirement.
How this has anything to do with DeKalb potentially becoming a sanctuary city is beyond me.
Don’t you have more pressing issues? Like stopping DeKalb from being a sanctuary city? DeKalb has become a dangerous place
The problem is, if we ignore this, the City’s genius attorney has made the marketability of many income producing properties severely compromised. IMO this man needs to be reigned in and stopped from continually hurting local businesses….
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A city must have affordable housing.