A week has passed since Auburn City Council voted on a revised apartment moratorium.
The moratorium was pushed to last week's meeting after Ward 5 Councilwoman Lynda Tremaine voted against taking it to a vote Jan. 20. At last week's meeting, the moratorium was pushed to the next city council meeting once again, which will take place Feb. 17.
This time, the vote against came from Ward 6 Councilman Dick Phelan.
"There were people (at the Jan. 20 meeting) that obviously were totally for the moratorium, and there were people that were against the moratorium," Phelan said. "I thought, if nothing else, if we delay it two weeks, that will give people an opportunity to either discuss it amongst themselves or, in many cases, go and talk to their councilperson trying to influence them one way or another."
Many citizens were satisfied with Phelan's choice not to vote in favor of a moratorium decision at that time. The arguments against the moratorium have ranged from lost value of private property to unconstitutionality.
"Even though the majority of the people may have an opinion, the opinion of the majority does not trump the rights of the few, and individual property rights are inalienable rights that we have in this country," said Nick Hayes, a local real estate agent and strong opponent of the moratorium. "I think for the government to wade into the water of interfering with individual property rights is shark-infested waters, and we need to be really careful about how we proceed with that."
Anna Salomon, who is in favor of the moratorium, encouraged the council to use the opinions of the citizens in each ward to make an informed decision.
"I think that this moratorium would give the planning department, the city, the City Council, the opportunity to sit back and just look and say, 'How are we going the implement these things that we have already tried to get public opinion on?'" Salomon said.
However, the council members still have time to re-evaluate their decision for the next vote to decide the moratorium issue.
Most in favor of the moratorium simply want a little more time to understand the facts, including Ward 7 Councilman Gene Dulaney.
"There's been an unintended consequence to some of this, and this is the reason that I would like to see us do some study and gather some information and just see exactly where were going," Dulaney said.
The vote for the revised apartment moratorium will take place in the City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 17.
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