Bill would keep students from living near Temple

FOLLOWING complaints from longtime residents that Temple University students are wreaking havoc on their neighborhoods, City Councilman Darrell Clarke has introduced a bill that would prohibit new student housing near the college.

"Confrontations between residents and students have gotten to the point where enough is enough," Clarke said. "It's not all of the students, but it's gotten to a level where enough of the students are problematic that it's putting a stain on all of the students and being problematic to the existing long-term residents."

Student housing would be prohibited in the area bounded roughly by 19th Street, Lehigh Avenue, 9th Street, Cecil B. Moore Avenue, 13th Street and Girard Avenue.

Clarke has pointed to recent incidents in the area, including the Sept. 5 shoot-out between a robber and a Temple student, and cases of unruly behavior by students. The bill would ban new multiple-family dwellings, apartment houses, tenement houses, student housing not owner-occupied, and fraternity and sorority houses.

Already the proposal has landlords and some organizations fired up and questioning the legality of the proposal.

"I would think there are several rights and freedoms they're violating with this," said Victor Pinckney Sr., president of the Homeowners Association of Philadelphia. "Our attorneys are reviewing it to see if we will oppose it or not."

Herb Reid III, a board member of the Temple Area Property Association, said: "We completely understand the issues, but to use a butcher knife for an issue that needs a scalpel . . . and simply ban a whole class of people from living in a particular area which is within a half-mile radius of where they work and go to school is beyond comprehension."

Reid said there wasn't enough on-campus housing to accommodate the student population.

Temple spokesman Ray Betzner said a 1,300-bed residential complex on Broad Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue is under construction, following discussions with residents and students in 2009 that revealed that more on-campus housing was needed.