s opinion hints that courts may have to rule on constitutionality of inspection process

Lawrence’s ordinance limiting the number of unrelated people who can rent a single-family home together is OK. Inspecting those rental homes is a murkier issue.

That’s the essence of a legal opinion released to the public Monday by Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall that may give fresh ammunition to both sides of an expected lawsuit about the city’s new rental ordinances.

“I think it raises more questions than it answered,” said Bob Ebey, a Lawrence landlord and spokesman for the Citizens Rights Committee, which will bring the legal challenge.

City Manager Mike Wildgen said city lawyers were reviewing the document. He declined more extensive comment.

“We’re studying it internally; then we’ll brief the commission,” he said.

In 2001, city commissioners passed an ordinance saying no more than three unrelated people can live together in single-family-zoned rental homes. To help enforce the rule, commissioners also instituted a requirement that such homes be licensed and inspected.

More than 1,500 homes have been registered so far.

State Sen. Chris Steineger, a Kansas City Democrat, asked Stovall in December for an opinion on the legality of the new ordinances.

The commission tinkered with the ordinance in January, allowing group homes and adult care homes to be exempted from the ordinances. That kept the ordinance from running afoul of the Federal Fair Housing Act’s prohibition on housing discrimination based on disability, she said.

Stovall said the city’s definition of “family” under the ordinance is broad enough not to transgress the law.

But the attorney general hinted a court may have to decide whether the city’s inspection policy invades the privacy of rental home tenants.

“A tenant’s consent or a warrant must be obtained prior to an attempt to gain access,” she wrote.

“That puts the landlord in an untenable position,” said Chris Miller, an attorney representing Citizens Rights Committee. “The landlord will be held responsible for the tenant’s decision to refuse entry.”

Wildgen declined comment on that possibility.

Miller said plans for a lawsuit are moving ahead, though he didn’t know when it might be filed.

“We’re still getting phone calls every day,” he said, “from people who want to be involved in the challenge.”