Neighbors oppose special exceptions for 2 Unity homes housing college students

About a half dozen neighbors told the Unity zoning hearing board Tuesday that they don’t want the panel to clear the way for a township couple to continue operating two rental homes for Saint Vincent College students in the township’s Lawson Heights residential neighborhood.

The panel’s decision is at least a month away, as Steven and Carol Prock were given time to provide professional surveys of the properties — at 3 Catherine Ave. and 1174 Sunset Drive — in time for the board’s next meeting on April 23.

Several opponents testified that the student housing in what originally were single-family homes is out of step with the neighborhood’s family households. They expressed concern about the negative impact the vehicles of students and their guests have on cramped parking and the safety of children playing outdoors.

The board also received a petition from more than 30 residents specifically opposing use of the Sunset Drive home for student rentals.

Zoning board Solicitor David DeRose pointed out student housing is allowed in that suburban residential district as long as it meets certain township criteria, including limiting occupancy to no more than four students and providing an off-street parking space for each.

Several neighbors who objected to the student housing as a change in character for the neighborhood said that student renters have been fairly well-behaved.

But Matt Soohey, who lives across from the Catherine Avenue home, said parties at the property have prompted police to respond and have sometimes strayed onto his property.

“Somebody was in my yard playing with my dog drunk,” he said. “It’s a family neighborhood. I don’t think college students are right to be in the neighborhood.”

“I have everything in the world invested in my house,” said Joe Yunetz, who lives on Center Drive, not far from the Catherine Avenue property. “I don’t think that college housing is in the interest of my neighborhood or what I expected when I made this investment.”

Steven Prock said he intends to widen the driveway to expand parking at the Sunset Drive property, but township officials said a survey is required to document the layout of the home and its amenities.

The Procks said their first goal is to win the board’s approval of a special exception for each of the properties. If that’s granted, they’ll have to apply for annual occupancy permits and submit to related inspections under the township’s regulated rental unit ordinance.

Following Tuesday’s zoning hearing, the Procks said they didn’t realize they needed township approval for their student housing until they said a visitor at the Catherine Street house triggered a neighbor’s complaint.

Carol Prock acknowledged testimony from neighbors that activity at the Sunset Drive house led to a drug arrest. She said that incident occurred when the couple initially rented the home as an Airbnb shortly after they purchased it in July 2020.

She said they were victims in that rental agreement and since have interspersed renting the home to students during the school year with renting it to others, including senior “snowbirds,” during summers.

Steven Prock said they’ve operated with the same mix of tenants at the Catherine Avenue home, which they originally purchased in September 2019 as housing for their son when he was attending Saint Vincent.

Township Solictor Gary Falatovich cautioned the Procks that, if they continue to operate the properties as student housing, township ordinances prohibit them from also using the houses for other short-term rentals.

“Those two uses are mutually exclusive,” he said. “You can’t have both.”

The Procks said they have responded when neighbors have complained to them about their student tenants. They said they didn’t know about police being called to the Catherine Street home.

“The kids know that, if there’s a neighbor complaint, they can be evicted,” Carol Prock said. “We already threatened one with eviction.”

Unity Supervisor Mike O’Barto said one of the problems with enforcing the ordinance is that township officials usually don’t know a property is being used for student housing until it generates a complaint from a neighbor.

“We need to do a better job,” he said of the township. “I want to protect the people who have been living here a number of years. They deserve a community where they don’t have to worry about what’s going on in their neighborhood. Now they do.”