To the editor:

Owner-occupied residents in single-family zoned neighborhoods find little comfort that landlord Mark Lehman has “stopped paying attention” to how many students he can “cram” into his 60 rental houses (as though he ever did).

Mr. Lehman is typical of many student landlords who thumb their noses at the city ordinance, which limits the number of unrelated renters to three in single-family zoned neighborhoods.

Because of the city’s “non-enforcement,” and with no real penalty for ignoring the ordinance, landlords are saying, “catch me if you can”!

There is a solution to this single-family zoned neighborhood dilemma:

1. Register all renters AND their cars.

2. Reduce the number of unrelated renters (in SF zoned neighborhoods) to two.

3. Have a $1,000 per day fine for each violation.

Finally, if ineffectual enforcement of the single-family zoning ordinance (whose sole purpose is to protect property value and neighborhood “livability” of and for homeowners) continues to be ignored by the city, most central Lawrence families (and schools) will eventually disappear, having moved to nearby towns where housing is affordable and zoning is enforced.

Bob Blank,

Lawrence