Thanks to our members for making coverage of West St. Paul City Council meetings possible.
There’s a light agenda for the regular West St. Paul City Council meeting, but the work session will focus in depth on rental housing issues.
Strategic Planning: Rental Housing
During the Open Council Work Session (OCWS), Council will dedicate significant time to discussing how to improve the quality of rental housing and support renters’ rights. The city has a detailed draft Rental Housing Standards report that explores three areas, the actual or perceived issues, existing data, and recommendations for improvement.
- Health, Safety, and Wellbeing: Much of this focuses on the licensing and inspection process as well as complaints, which is the city’s main way to address this issue. In broad strokes, this process seems to be working and most issues are resolved. However there may be a perception problem or a lack of reporting. Potential improvements include on-time licensing goals, more stringent standards, and administrative tweaks.
- Imbalance of power between landlords and tenants: Recent state law has made potentially positive changes in this area, but it’s hard to know if it’s had an impact. Looking at complaints and the ability/willingness to report is important here. Potential improvements include new ordinances/requirements and outreach, including creating rental resources and getting those in the hands of renters, creating a map-based system of issues, and more.
- Engagement: Connecting with the rental community is generally harder (both to measure and achieve), and improvement mostly relies on going where the people are to engage directly. Part of the challenge is to find out what works and what renters want.
Data from a 2022 community survey shows some interesting differences in responses between homeowners and renters.
Other Items on the Agenda
- Public hearing: Council will hold a public hearing for the franchise agreement with Xcel. Council approved the first reading at the last meeting with minimal discussion.
- Arbor Day Proclamation: Council will proclaim May 17 to be Arbor Day.
Engage
- Watch: The public can watch the meeting live on Town Square TV or cable TV starting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday (5 p.m. for the OCWS).
- Learn more: Guide to West St. Paul City Council.
We believe in government transparency and provide these West St. Paul City Council previews with the support of our members.
