Thanks for your vigilance...
Hoboken Legal Beagle - 8/26/2008
26
August
8/26/2008:
Today’s “to the point” Hoboken411 Legal Beagle segment is about student housing in Hoboken.
Is student housing OK in residential Hoboken?
“I am a resident and taxpayer in the northern section of Hoboken, and it has come to my attention that there are units in my building that are being rented/leased for the purposes of student housing.
This is NOT to be confused with students who independently lease/rent a unit, but rather an Educational Institution leasing a unit in a residential building, installing dormitory furniture, and housing enrolled students.
I do not have any specific problem with individual tenants, nor do I expect to. But I am not sure I would have chosen to live in a luxury family-oriented residence if I had known it was, at the same time, Student Housing.
But I am curious as to the legality of this situation, as I am unsure how a “luxury” residential building can, in my mind, sub-lease to a private institution individual units for student housing.
Are there particular zoning laws, or rules and regulations that either permit or prohibit this practice?”
Hoboken411 Legal Beagle says:
I suppose your referring to Stevens Institute of Technology, which does provide housing for students in different building throughout Hoboken (at least on Washington and Hudson Streets). There is nothing wrong, from a zoning and legal perspective with a Landlord renting units to Stevens and then Stevens subletting them to students. If Landlord allows such an arrangement the Law would not interfere. As long as the units have kitchens and do not become “rooming houses” (see Hoboken City Code) there is no nothing improper with such an arrangement.
- ROOMING HOUSE – Any dwelling or that part of any dwelling containing one (1) or more rooming units, in which space is let by the owner or operator to three (3) or more persons who are not husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, sister or brother of the owner or operator.
- ROOMING UNIT – Any room or group of rooms forming a single habitable unit used or intended to be used for living and sleeping, but not for cooking or eating purposes.
41. bradykp | August 26th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
lm24kc wrote:
you don’t need to be so defensive about it. understand that some people might be upset if they bought a unit and found out that part of the building is being used as “student housing”. sure, it’s legal, there’s nothing they can do about it, but many families or adults would initially react to that as being skeptical. i wouldn’t want to live next door to my college self personally.
as for the right to park, if students are here year round, then they should be required to change their plate like anyone else is, pay their fare share of insurance, and then they get to park. fine.
and it is not possible to obtain a resident permit without a NJ driver’s license with a Hoboken address. so if you see cars in the SW with other plates on it, they just haven’t gotten jersey plates…which is illegal, but they’ll deal with that problem if they get pulled over. to get a Hoboken Resident permit, you need to have a Hoboken address and the car must be registered in your name.
If there are exceptions to this, I’d love to hear them.
42. bradykp | August 26th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
TheGreatCO wrote:
it might be shocking to you, but stereotypes don’t materialize from thin air, they usually hold true. college students are experiencing their first waves of freedom often when they go to school. this usually results in being rowdier, doing more adventurous things, etc. obviously not all students do this, but it’s not a terrible assumption to make. though we all know what happens when we assume
as for complaining through management for noise….i’ve complained to my neighbors about noise. one is a large family. one might be college students, I don’t even know. I don’t care. but the only way to go through the process of having something done about it is to complain to management. Then management will be able to take action. that’s part of living in a building.
usually the people that make noise are people that won’t respond to a friendly complaint. but that’s my experience at least.
43. bradykp | August 26th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
rag246 wrote:
well said!
44. bradykp | August 26th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
little boots wrote:
liberal arts majors are successful? how does that happen? lol. just kidding.
45. little boots | August 26th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
an (I’m assuming) engineering/science major attempting to be funny and failing? Entirely expected and amusing……..
46. MidnightRacer | August 26th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
little boots wrote:
The structural engineering courses lack a coefficient needed to calculate the fracture point of a funny bone.
47. JohnnyB | August 26th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
If the students are having a party and serving alcohol then call the police. With enough underage drinking summons and noise summons I would bet it would be easy to get them evicted.
48. bradykp | August 26th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
little boots wrote:
not me. business major. and i was mocking the engineer from stevens that made fun of liberal arts majors. though i have to admit, at my college, many of us affectionately referred to the arts and science school as “arts and crafts”. but it was all in good fun. engineers at our school felt superior also. but the simple truth is, business majors are the ones hiring them too, so it’s all good.
49. bradykp | August 27th, 2008 at 12:12 am
JohnnyB wrote:
or at least they would all lose their licenses and not need their cars in town anymore!
whooohoooo more parking for us!
50. homeworld | August 27th, 2008 at 8:39 am
bradykp wrote:
I don’t think the engineer/scientist was making fun of liberal arts. They were just saying that liberal arts majors have a much reduced courseload and therefore would have more time for parties and the other sorts of activities that the commenters on here are afraid of.
51. lm24kc | August 27th, 2008 at 8:54 am
bradykp wrote:
Didn’t mean to come off as defensive. My blood just boiled when someone called for supervision. Of all the people in Hoboken, Stevens kids are not at the top of my list that need supervision. There are way bigger problems in town…
As a student that lived off campus and in a sorority, no one ever made me change my license. I had a parking permit since 2001 - and I went home for summers, so I didn’t want to change anything until I was a permanent resident. But I guess that was back in the day when HPA wasn’t so anal.
However, as I walk my dogs I find at least half the cars by me have different plates than NJ w/ Hoboken permits. Maybe I should take some pics and send to 411 so I can document my case. It boggles my mind. Sometimes I think if you catch HPA on a good day, they might not make you change your license and reg. - I have heard stories of friends that didn’t have to switch. After all, that rule was in effect long before they actually enforced it. Who knows?? I am especially intrigued by the guy from Ontario - he’s not even from America and he gets a permit?!? I hope I run into him one day so I can ask.
52. bradykp | August 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
homeworld wrote:
if the engineer is anything like the hundreds i knew in college, he/she was certainly making fun of liberal arts majors and saying that he/she was taking “REAL” courses. yet, i think one of the generally accepted most difficult courses in undergrad is organic chemistry, which is usually in the liberal arts college of a school. or maybe the engineer doesn’t count sciences as the liberal arts. i don’t know. it seemed like the tone of his/her post to me.
53. bradykp | August 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
lm24kc wrote:
i called the HPA once and asked them if there were any sort of exceptions to the rule, and they said no. so all I can figure is that those people have illegally not updated their plates, but carry a NJ driver’s license. Which if it’s the case, they just haven’t been pulled over yet and caught. I didn’t change my plates the same day we changed our registration and driver’s licenses, but I had it on there within a couple weeks, so I could easily see how some manage to slip through.
Why don’t you write down the plate numbers and call the state police? You’re supposed to change all your information within 6 months of moving to a state, at least I think most states have that law.
regardless, it’d be my opinion that stevens’ students have much less of a need for cars than other individuals in this town. and since parking is so scarce, I’d say others should get priority. There are many college campuses that don’t allow freshmen and sophomores to have cars at all, so a Stevens’ student shouldn’t get a special exception being off campus. At least, that’s my opinion. But I park in my garage, so really, I don’t care. the hoboken streets are a bit too brutal for me.
54. little boots | August 27th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Bradykp–all in good fun on my end too
Homeworld–go back and read the post from the steven’s kid where he mentions the bs liberal arts majors and says he takes a ‘REAL’ courseload. That’s what I was referring to in my earlier comment.
55. nacholibre | August 27th, 2008 at 9:32 am
When I moved here, I was having issues with the DMV in VA sending my title. HPU said I could get a resident sticker as long as I had a NJ drivers license with my Hoboken address. For about 2 months I had VA plates and a Hoboken sticker.
56. bradykp | August 27th, 2008 at 9:41 am
nacholibre wrote:
when was that? that’s basically what they told me. your NJ driver’s license has to have your Hoboken address (which indirectly means you are legally required to change your plates to NJ - no one forces you to though). you also have to have the car registered in YOUR name. so not your parents’ name, not your girlfriend’s name, etc etc.
57. nickf | August 28th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Stevens does not allow Freshman, Sophomores or Juniors to have cars on campus. The only exception to this rule are students working on co-op (internships) that are not accessible by public transportation (these students receive a letter from Stevens to HPU and pay the “temporary pass” fee - $45/45 days, I believe?).
Seniors are allowed to apply for a parking pass, but I’m fairly certain their pass is only good for on-campus parking. I know for a fact that students living in off campus housing (including Greek houses on Castle Point Terrace/Hudson streets) are not considered residents and are therefore unable to apply for resident passes.
As for other people who have out of state license plates (ie-Ontario, as mentioned above) - the owner may very well have a Hoboken license and be a Hoboken resident, but driving a company car (although Ontario seems a bit extreme, I can easily see this being the case with a NY car). The owner just needs to have a Hoboken license and a letter from the company stating they are driving the given car.
And for the record, the Stevens-rented units only had 6 people living in them for the first few weeks of last September while they were waiting for more units and the new dorm to open up. The 2 bedroom units now only have 3-4 students in them.
58. bradykp | August 28th, 2008 at 10:10 am
nickf wrote:
that all sounds fair to me as far as the parking goes.