Posted by tmeagher September 06, 2009 06:41AM
SOUTH ORANGE -- University towns have likely battled rowdy student conduct since before the invention of the beer keg.
But real-world lessons in civics could be in the offing for Seton Hall University students who run afoul of a recently-adopted South Orange ordinance designed to curb drunken behavior in and around off-campus housing.
The ordinance, which proponents say could become a model "animal house" law in university communities nationwide, stipulates that landlords must move to evict tenants if those tenants, or their guests, are convicted of two so-called quality-of-life violations in a 12-month period.
"We're going to cooperate in their efforts to evict. All we want landlords to do is to work with us," the village's attorney, Steven Rother, said. "They're not going to go down there alone to fight the battle."
Landlords who fail to comply with the ordinance could face substantial fines and revocation of their license to rent.
The ordinance, which became law on the cusp of the new school year that began last week, was precipitated by complaints from residents living near the university who for years said their peace and quiet were being adversely impacted by rowdy students living nearby.
Gary Paul Wright, who has lived on Riggs Place about two blocks from campus for 10 years, has seen -- and heard -- both the good and the bad of student life over the last decade.
Wright, 50, said he has filed complaints to draw the police's attention either to beer-bottle-throwing neighbors or late-night parties that sometimes lasted into the early morning.
"They turn you into a grumpy old man when you don't want to be a grumpy old man" he said.
And, he said, although recent student occupants of the house next door have blended into the residential neighborhood, he favors the ordinance.
"My whole feeling is if people want to live in the neighborhood, they should behave like residential tenants; that means you quiet down at a certain hour," he said.
The ordinance lists several infractions that constitute quality-of-life violations, among them: disorderly, indecent or tumultuous conduct; assault; urinating or defecating in public; crimes against property; and excessive noise.
Landlords who violate the ordinance could be fined at least $500. Continued renting of a dwelling, after revocation or suspension of a registration license, is a separate offense that carries a fine of at least $500 for each day the unit is rented.
David Lako, a Seton Hall junior living on Academy Street, said the law was more draconian than it needed to be to achieve its stated ends.
A college environment, nearly anywhere, becomes something of a petri dish, he said. Away from home for what is often the first time in their lives, students are testing the borders of what's permissible.
"It's kind of rough," he said last week. "I know a bunch of guys and girls ... who will get a couple of noise violations" without much effort.
An estimated 700 to 750 students of the university's 5,300 undergraduate students and 4,500 graduate students live off-campus in South Orange.
According to the ordinance, "a significant number of landlords" rent units to people who "frequently engage in conduct which constitutes breaches of the peace."
And because landlords are the ones selecting tenants, "only landlords can effectively remedy the situation."
But the ordinance's detractors, while sympathetic to what it attempts to address, are skeptical that it can survive a legal challenge.
Jack Feinstein, clinical professor of law and director of the Urban Legal Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law-Newark, thinks the ordinance could actually run up against existing state statutes, which are among the strongest pro-tenant laws in the nation.
While, on the face of it, the ordinance makes it easy for a landlord to comply with its terms -- he or she must only initiate eviction proceeding against troublesome tenants -- state law could in fact complicate the process, Feinstein said.
"I just don't see that this ordinance is going to accomplish what it has as its purpose," Feinstein said.
But Nicholas Kikis, the director of regulatory affairs and research for the New Jersey Apartment Association, called South Orange's approach more measured than those in other communities.
"What South Orange did here is they did not write a blanket ordinance -- they wrote a very targeted ordinance," he said
Rother, the village attorney, said he and South Orange officials combed through ordinances nationwide to draft a law that would withstand judicial scrutiny.
A few of the ordinances Rother looked at were a pair of laws passed in Ewing Township. Those ordinances, also dubbed "Animal House" laws, were designed to curb unruly student behavior. (The College of New Jersey is in the township, and Rider University and Mercer Community College are nearby.)
Those ordinances, however, were overturned earlier this year by a Superior Court judge who called them overbroad.
But Andrew Lane, a Short Hills attorney who represents a family-owned management company that rents nearly 200 units in South Orange, is among several attorneys who said the ordinance was hastily put together and approved. Already existing laws, if they are enforced, would more than adequately address the issues, Lane said.
And while for a time residents and village officials expressed frustration with university administrators in trying to quell rowdy behavior, both Seton Hall and South Orange have of late made purposeful strides toward a steadier relationship.
Seton Hall's dean of students, Karen Van Norman, said the university works closely with the police department. University administrators, she said, are immediately notified when a student gets in trouble.
Resulting sanctions against a student range from a warning to counseling and education, from probation to suspension, and if the behavior is severe enough, expulsion. Van Norman said 91 university students were issued 112 sanctions last year.
Police issued seven summonses for so-called quality-of-life violations last weekend, Chief Jim Chelel said, adding that officers will have a good inkling of where potential trouble lies for the coming semester before long.
"The majority of them are good kids. There's just certain addresses that the police have to focus on," he said.
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