Can a city restrict condo rental?

[MrKauffy]

Minnesota - A condo is going up in our neighborhood and we're concerned that it will end up being an apartment building. The builder/developer won't commit to preventing one person from buying all of the units and renting them out. Is there anything the city can do to stipulate owner occupancy only?

[nextwife]

Originally Posted by MrKauffy

Minnesota - A condo is going up in our neighborhood and we're concerned that it will end up being an apartment building. The builder/developer won't commit to preventing one person from buying all of the units and renting them out. Is there anything the city can do to stipulate owner occupancy only?

It IS possible for a community to impose certain requirments in order to issue a building permit. I have seen developers agreements with the municipality include such matters as green space requirements, berm requirments, parking to unit ratios, signage size and heights, PERCENTAGE OF NON-OWNER OCCUPIED UNITS PERMITED, housing density based on accreage avaialble, traffic patterns permitted (such as no left turn from certain entrances) and so on. Talk to the appropriate alderman about imposing an owner occupancy ratio in the project approval criteria.