The West Summit Neighborhood Advisory Committee focused on improving St. Thomas’ relationship with the community at its meeting Tuesday.
Louis Smith, of Louis Smith Partners, discussed findings from his Partnership Feasibility Study. WSNAC hired Smith to research how to promote neighborhood livability in the long term.
Smith said the survey showed students perceive a good relationship with neighbors, but neighbors’ opinions are not as positive.
Residents are concerned with increased student house rentals in the neighborhood. The percent of non-homestead residences, which are residences that are not the owner’s principal home, rose from 23.9 percent in 2002 to 40.5 percent in 2009 in the neighborhood surrounding St. Thomas, Smith said.
Smith said the non-homestead residence “tipping point” – when neighbors become frustrated with the number of students living in the neighborhood – is generally when non-homesteads make up 30 percent of the neighborhood. The “tipping point” is also when neighbors become concerned about decreasing property values in the neighborhood.
To get back below the “tipping point,” Smith outlined possible ideas such as revising and extending St. Thomas’ housing buyback program. St. Thomas has begun converting student rental housing into owner-occupied houses and will convert 30 properties by August 2016, said Doug Hennes, WSNAC member and vice president of university relations.
Hennes said St. Thomas does not own any of the 30 properties. There have been 17 conversions to owner-occupied houses so far, and 13 more must occur by August 2016, Hennes said.
“Our realtor will work to identify a rental house that is going on the market and then will work to find a new owner-occupant for it,” Hennes said. “St. Thomas will assist financially in the transaction, providing funds to cover things like closing and rehab costs, but St. Thomas does not become the property owner.”
Smith suggested converting 15 additional non-homestead properties. His other idea was to assist St. Thomas employees with down payments for high-priority areas close to campus.
“For St. Thomas to consider any of that, we have to have a better sense of, ‘This is what it would cost us,” Hennes said. “There could be 20 options by the time we get done, so we’re really at the beginning stages.”
Some other suggestions for improving neighborhood livability included finding ways for Campus Ministry and the parish to work together to help build community and engaging parents with their students’ neighbors to improve student-neighbor relations.
Tennis court location still undecided, WSNAC approves Segway, solar panel grants
Hennes said no further decision has been made regarding the new tennis court location.
“I don’t know if we’re going to build this summer, and I don’t know where it’s going to be. That decision is not in my hands, but we will make a decision fairly soon,” Hennes said. “We have no formal deadline on the tennis courts, but we expect to decide by the end of March. If we want the courts open for use when students return in the summer, we need to decide by April 1.”
St. Thomas’ efforts to obtain a permanent liquor license are also on hold, Hennes said.
“The Minnesota Private College Council has introduced a legislation that if approved, would allow any private college in Minnesota to go to its city and ask for a license,” Hennes said. St. Thomas has to wait to see if the bill passes before beginning a St. Paul liquor license application.
WSNAC members also approved the purchase of a Segway with $6,500 in WSNAC funds and a $50,000 grant from the National Center for Environmental Research’s Science to Achieve Results program. WSNAC receives $10,000 a year from the university. St. Thomas will own, store and maintain the Segway, which will be used in the neighborhood by off-duty St. Paul police officers.
In addition, WSNAC authorized a letter of support for a Science to Achieve Results grant application.The application requests $50,000 to match the cost of installing solar panels on the roof of the Anderson Student Center.
Rachel Britton has been reached at brit7192@stthomas.edu.
If you live by a College… expect college students to live there too. This sounds like the people who live by the airport and then complain about noise from aircraft. There isn’t a single homeowner in the neighborhood who moved in before St. Thomas was founded. St. Thomas doesn’t have affordable on campus housing for a very large number of students, so of-course they rent off campus. Why is this a surprise to anyone? Of-course College students do a lot of stupid things in the neighborhood. And yes, after four years they leave and the non-student residents remain….. but for the four years that students are around…. it’s our neighborhood too. Don’t act like we are second rate citizens just because our address changes more frequently.
The WSNAC pays Smith and Smith wants St. Thomas to spend more money to make a few neighbors happy. Wow, That is a surprise. Smith says that the neighbors are not as positive as students. Wow, Another surprise. Over the years all I have heard is negative from this group of neighbors. Why does St.Thomas give this group; a venue, time and money? On real news for UST:
St.Thomas will lose, money and many current/future students, if Tennis courts are not built.
Anyone else furious that UST spends our tuition money to buy up houses to keep students from finding them? While maintaining prohbitively expensive on-campus options? We pay the school, not the neighborhood. One would expect St. Thomas to support its students in such a scenario.
It is already difficult enough to find affordable, comfortable off campus housing. St. Thomas cannot accommodate all students in on-campus housing and many students can’t even afford it. This leaves one option that drives hundreds of students per year to search for and rent housing in the neighborhood. I don’t know what the neighbors of the university expect, because our options are limited as well. I have said it before and I will say it again; this IS our neighborhood too. We live here, we shop here, we volunteer here and even though we may not remain after our years at St. Thomas, for the duration of our education- this is our neighborhood too. If the neighbors are concerned about decreasing property values, why not initiate legislation that will hold landlords to certain standards regarding property conditions? I currently live in a well maintained home 1 block from St. Thomas, but in the past I have also lived in not so well maintained off campus housing. Hold those homeowners/landlords who let their property deteriorate, to standards that will keep property values at acceptable levels. I think the neighbors are getting angry at the wrong group here… students don’t really have other options.
is st thomas really buying a segway to patrol the neighborhoods?……..wow