Columbia considers student housing development freeze

At Monday night’s City Council Meeting, Mayor Brian Treece and the city council talked about putting a possible delay on student housing developments.

Some of those details still need to be worked out, which would include what exact period of time the freeze would last, what exactly constitutes student housing, and what are the boundaries of the freeze.

“I would ask the council and the staff to bring back some ideas as to a potential administrative delay or at least some stop gap if you will,” Mayor Treece addressed the council on Monday.

The City Council all agreed that the recent drop in student enrollment at MU played a big part, “most of the student housing that you see being built in the downtown area, is what use to be a rising enrollment at the University.”

The Deputy City Manager of Columbia, Tony St. Romaine told ABC 17 that having too many student housing complex’s takes a toll on the City’s infrastructure, ” obviously these types of developments put a strain on our infrastructure both in terms of utilities and parking demands.”

You may recall, Quinton’s is in the process of being demolished and built into a new housing project, as well as Shakespeare’s in downtown Columbia.

The Ordinance is set to be brought up on the May 2nd meeting, and later a discussion with the public will be held, followed by a possible vote on May 16th.