(a) No owner or tenant shall operate any rooming house, foster home or hotel within the city without having first applied for and obtained from the Mayor a license entitling him or her to do so, which license shall be valid until December 31 of the year in which it is granted.
(b) The Mayor shall prescribe the form of application and licenses shall be issued subject to all other provisions of the ordinances of the city, conditions prescribed by the Board of Zoning Appeals and the following.
(1) A separate rooming house license shall be required for each dwelling unit to be operated as a rooming house and no rooming house shall be operated or licensed unless a part of or contained within a dwelling unit, as dwelling unit is defined in § 1355.01.
(2) The third floor of single- and two-family dwelling structures shall not qualify for “roomers” and no temporary rooming house license shall be issued to owners of any single- and two-family dwelling structures, except on the following conditions:
A. The owner of the dwelling unit shall have had a valid temporary rooming house license on March 17, 1981, the effective date of Ordinance No. 7471 which prohibits and eliminates the issuance of temporary rooming house licenses for third floor roomer occupancy in single- and in two-family dwelling structures;
B. The license must not have been suspended, revoked, allowed to expire, or terminated; nor forfeited by the sale of the real property by the licensee, since the temporary rooming house license is neither assignable, nor transferable under § 1355.05(b)(5);
C. Further, the temporary rooming house license must not have been nor shall it be abandoned, or allowed to expire unless such abandonment was directly the fault of the city when it enacted into law Ordinance No. 7471, passed March 17, 1981 prohibiting and eliminating “roomer” occupancies on third floors in single- and in two-family dwelling structures;
D. Provided a variance has been granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals pursuant to Chapter 1107 of the Planning and Zoning Code when the criteria for the grant of a variance has been met by an owner as such criteria is prescribed in § 1107.04;
E. Provided, all of the legal ordinance requirements, conditions, building and fire codes, safety standards and stipulations of law as enacted now or hereafter prescribed by Council and the requirements herein and under this chapter are met by the owner, including all other applicable ordinances, regulations and state statutes; and
F. Licenses shall not be assignable, or transferable and any changes made by the applicant or owner in the conditions or terms of operation from those originally contained in the application and license issued shall act to terminate such license issued forthwith. Whoever accepts or is issued any license hereunder agrees to be bound by the conditions herein and upon either the death of the owner to whom the temporary rooming house license is issued, or upon the sale of the dwelling structure for which a temporary rooming house license was issued, such license automatically terminates and is invalid.
(3) No rooming house license shall be issued except to the nominal head of the dwelling unit for which a rooming house license is applied and with the express written consent of the owner of the premises in which such dwelling unit is situated.
(4) The third floor of a single- or two-family dwelling containing an upstairs and a downstairs dwelling unit shall be considered as a part of the upstairs or second floor dwelling unit for the purposes of issuing licenses pursuant to this section, when the conditions as set forth in divisions (b)(2)A. to (b)(2)F. above are met by an owner.
(5) Notwithstanding division (b)(2) above, prohibiting roomer occupancy on third floors in single- and two-family dwelling structures, it is the intent of this section to permit third floor roomer occupancies under a temporary rooming house license where the applicable conditions, as prescribed in divisions (b)(2)A. to (b)(2)F. above are met; and where any qualifying owner of a single- or two-family dwelling structure had a valid current temporary rooming house license issued to him or her permitting third floor roomer occupancy in such structure on March 17, 1981, effective date of passage of Ord. 7471, eliminating all such roomer occupancy in single- and two-family dwelling structures in the city.
(6) A temporary rooming house license for premises which have been obtained by an owner or tenant for a calendar year or fraction thereof becomes null and void when interest in that building changes during such calendar year, and notwithstanding § 1355.06(c), no new owner or tenant shall be issued any temporary rooming house license except under the conditions prescribed in divisions (b)(2)A. to (b)(2)F. above where applicable. Except for hotels, any license issued pursuant to this section may be granted by the Mayor only with the approval and consent of the Board of Zoning Appeals and shall be a temporary license for the period of one calendar year or part thereof. Such issuance of a temporary license shall not be construed as permanently authorizing an increase in the number of dwelling units for which the building was originally designed or to which it has been legally converted; nor be construed as changing or modifying the zoning applicable to such building; nor be construed as obligating the city in any way whatsoever to issue a temporary rooming house license for such building in any succeeding year. No license issued hereunder shall be self-perpetuating from year to year.
(7) The renewal of any temporary rooming house license to any qualifying owner in addition to the owner meeting the relevant condition or conditions established in divisions (b)(2)A. to (b)(2)F. above shall also depend upon the property being maintained by the owner in compliance with all city ordinances and state laws applicable thereto; compliance with all of the provisions of this chapter; and reissuance will also depend upon the subject real property passing an annual inspection conducted by the city under its annual and periodic city-wide code enforcement program.
(Ord. 7678, passed 11-1-1983)