DISCUSSING THE ISSUE — Steubenville Planning Commission hosted a public hearing Monday on the proposed repeal of the Neighborhood Conservation District ordinance enacted in 2014, allowing residents to offer input. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Members of Steubenville’s Planning Commission said Monday they’re not ready to weigh in on whether the city’s 25 Neighborhood Conservation Districts should be abolished.

The city’s NCD ordinance, adopted in 2014, afforded owners of single-family properties within specific residential neighborhoods the opportunity to request NCD status “to preserve the attractiveness, desirability and character” of their neighborhood by precluding all or certain types of rental properties, “thereby avoiding the potential negative effects rental properties can have on a neighborhood with regard to property deterioration, increased density, congestion, noise and traffic levels and reduction of property value.”

To be designated as an NCD, at least two-thirds of the property owners in the target area had to sign off, and every property owner in the zone had to receive and initial a fact sheet detailing their rights and responsibilities. Rental properties existing before the neighborhood conservation district were implemented were grandfathered in, so unless the owners failed to renew their rental registry, they could remain.

In December, Fourth Ward Councilman Royal Mayo and former First Ward Councilwoman Asantewa Anyabwile had called on council to repeal the enabling legislation. Mayo was present but didn’t speak during the public hearing, though in a weekend interview he’d suggested NCDs are “based solely on race and product racial segregation.” At the time he’d said the makeup of the 25 NCDs “is, by a longshot, going to stop the majority of people of color (from living in one) if they don’t have the money to buy.”

About 25 residents piled into the public gallery for the public hearing, though only eight of them provided sworn testimony.

Denise White, an Alexander Manor West resident, said NCDs were created “to stop rentals by out-of-town and negligent landlords,” citing one on her street who’d rented a house to seven young men who parked their cars in neighbors’ yards and driveways, climbed on the roof to drink, party and start fires “and then jumped off,” and didn’t cut the grass.

She said the NCDs are helping stabilize neighborhoods and property values, adding she and others who supported their creation “knowingly signed away our legal rights to rent our properties out” to get that.

“Our problem was not who would be our neighbor,” White said. “Our problem was the out-of-town and negligent landlords.”

Kimberly Hahn, a Belleview Boulevard resident and former councilwoman at large, says NCDs are a tool homeowners can use to protect their communities. She said since its implementation, home values in her neighborhood have stabilized and homeowners have begun investing in painting or siding their homes, replacing roofs and new steps and porches.

“It’s not been a cure-all but it has been an effective tool allowing homeowners to do something about their neighborhood,” Hahn said, adding, “no fair housing laws were broken by NCDs.”

“I don’t think anybody would benefit by taking conservation districts away,” she said.

But the Fair Housing Commission’s Jacky Hines said statistically, 81 percent of the city’s rental population is non-white, “so you are approaching an area where we may be infringing on (their rights.)

“If this is about the state of homes in the city, then council needs to address that as a whole,” Hines said. “If this is about parking problems on the hilltop, then council needs to address that as a whole. There are ways to address these without having a conservation district — there are ways to make our city better for everybody, not just certain neighborhoods. We can’t all be in conservation districts, we have to allow people to rent in this city. So I put the onus on council … find a way to address this (for) the entire city.”

John Barnes, chair of the Ohio Valley Fair Housing Center and vice president of Steubenville Fair Housing Practices Commission, said while he signed the petition for an NCD in the Brady Estates, as a member of the fair housing board he’d sent a letter to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission supporting the repeal of the NCDs.

“We found it to be prejudicial against minorities and their civil rights,” he said.

“I’ve lived in Brady Estates for 48 years and I’ve seen a change in the neighborhood, some for the good, some for the bad,” Barnes added. “As a resident up there I’m just as concerned about my property as you are, believe me.”

Barnes said Fair Housing believes NCDs are unlawful, pointing out the ordinance is preventing people from renting in those 25 areas, though others in the crowd pointed out residents in those districts want to live in their properties, not rent them out.

“They’re not available,” someone in the crowd muttered.

We (believe) NCD is out of order and want council to do what they can to rectify the situation, and if they would respond to the citizens up there … we would have a better city,” Barnes said.

Hines and Barnes both alluded to a settlement negotiated by the Ohio Attorney General’s office in response to a 2019 lawsuit filed by a mother of eight who claimed she’d been forced to move out of a house she was renting in a neighborhood conservation district because the landlord neglected to register it as a rental property as proof NCD’s are discriminatory.

The woman had claimed harm on the grounds of race, religion, disability and family status, but, after a lengthy review, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission dismissed all but the race claim and recommended conciliation.

OCRC’s initial conciliation proposal had called for the city to repeal its NCD ordinance and set up a fund to pay any property owner or renter who could prove harm, but the city refused to accept it. Instead they settled on enacting a three-year moratorium on new NCDs and capped the number of rental properties in each of Steubenville’s 25 NCDs at their current level. In the event a landlord fails to register a rental property before the one-year grace period expires, other property owners could apply to fill the void. The mother received $7,500, paid by the city’s insurer.

Hahn, who was serving on council at the time, said the woman was forced to move because her landlord repeatedly refused to register his property as required by the NCD ordinance. “Really, she only had to move out because he refused to register,” she said. “We settled, but not because we were at fault.”

Planning Commission Chair Teresa DiCarlantonio said it’s “complicated, it really is.

“I believe there is a place in the middle where we can all come together with our cares and live right, live correctly,” she said. “It wasn’t meant to discriminate — the NCD was a well-intended contract, whatever you want to call it, but as a result, unforeseen consequences have evolved.”