By Mary LaSota,

Like many municipalities across Pennsylvania, the Borough of West Chester has worked long and hard to balance the competing interests between the Borough’s residents and the students and landlords.   After decades of complaints of poor behavior by students living off campus, and the inability or indifference of landlords to govern that behavior, the Borough was forced to pass student rental restrictions.

In 2001, the Borough Council enacted the Student Home Ordinance (Ord. No. 5-2001) limiting the number of student homes in certain residential neighborhoods and banning them in others.  The Borough’s ordinance is modeled after an ordinance passed in Lower Merion aimed to contain student housing at Villanova University.  West Chester’s ordinance has withstood several legal and legislature attacks promoted by Stan Zuken, a West Chester landlord.

Zuken and other landlords lobbied the late State Rep. Elinor Z. Taylor (R., West Chester) to sponsor legislation that would overturn the ordinance.   Their lobbying was successful.  HB 2069 was introduced in the 2001-2002 Regular Session.  If passed, HB 2069 would amend Pennsylvania’s Human Relations Act by adding “occupation” as a protected class, thereby, making it unlawful to discriminate against an individual based on his or her “occupation” in employment, housing and public accommodation.  Many municipalities, including West Chester, restrict student rentals based on the occupation of the individual as a “student.”  If HB 2069 had passed it would have voided West Chester’s student rental restrictions.   The bill never made it out of the State Government Committee.

Now comes HB 809, a bill introduced by State Rep. Sue Helm that would amend Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code.  Helm was quoted as saying that “students should not be discriminated against simply because they are students.”  It would be interesting to know if the thinly veiled anti-discrimination cloak surrounding HB 809 is really the result of successful lobbying by Stan Zuken and other landlords.  Is this an anti-discrimination bill? Or is this a bill promoting the interests of landlords?  It is understandable that Zuken, Robert J. Kappe, and Grant Nelson often see such rental restrictions as a direct attack on their business.  But as I often say “It’s not always about you.”  The Borough’s rental restrictions may stunt a landlords’ business, but the intent of the restrictions was to protect and balance competing interests, including protecting the interests of the Borough’s residents.

Like any state, the Commonwealth has the inherent power to promote the public health, morals, or safety and the general well-being of its citizens.  This inherent power allows a state (or even a municipality) to regulate private rights in the public interest.  These powers are known as police powers or general welfare clauses.  Pennsylvania delegates limited police power to its municipalities, including West Chester Borough.  There are limits on a municipality’s ability to use its police power to control the persons and property of its residents.  The general rule is that the means employed in the exercise of the police power can be neither arbitrary nor oppressive, and there must be a reasonable and substantial relationship between the means employed and the end to be attained.  Moreover, the end to be attained must be a public one, specifically the public health, public safety, or public morals, or some other facet of the “general welfare.”  Here, West Chester’s building regulations and zoning ordinance all fall within the permissible scope of its police powers, and since being a student is not a protected class under either the US Constitution, federal law or state law, the Borough along with all other municipalities can regulate based on a person’s occupation as a “student.”

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Mary R. LaSota is a sole practitioner focusing on estate planning, estate administration, tax, and business planning.   Opinions do not matter, only facts and how those facts pertain to the law.  When not immersed in the law, she can be found hiking with her dog, Gwen, cycling throughout Chester County, or writing snarky blog posts.

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