Landlords aim to trash garbage problems

One person's trash may well be another's treasure -- but that doesn't mean you want to see it. With that in mind, several dozen area landlords met yesterday to discuss proposed voluntary standards for keeping trash visibility to a minimum in University City. The meeting comes two months after 11 of the landlords formed a committee to address trash and other issues in hopes of improving the quality of their rental properties. Under the proposed guidelines -- which have yet to be finalized -- landlords would make sure no loose trash is visible around properties, that trash is enclosed in proper containers, that it is kept in backyards whenever possible and that it is collected regularly. The landlords will hold a meeting December 8 to vote on the proposed standards, which were discussed following a meeting with University Off-Campus Living officials and representatives from neighboring institutions like Drexel University. More than 35 landlords attended yesterday's meeting at the Rotunda, a Penn-owned former church at 40th and Walnut streets. "We're more than happy to work with Off-Campus Living and the students in every way possible, within reason, to make this a better community than it already is," said Committee Co-Chairperson Dan Deritis, owner of Apartments @ Penn, which operates 22 properties. The group recommends that landlords have a 30-gallon trash can for each two-bedroom unit and that they inspect properties each day to ensure that there is no loose trash. The group is also currently working on standards for lighting and safety. The lighting standards are projected to be compiled and distributed to area landlords before December, though it is not clear when it will devise the safety standards. About 41 percent of Penn's 10,000 undergraduates live off campus, according to recently released University figures. This proportion could fall in coming years after the University adds 870 beds in new on-campus dormitories in Hamilton Village. Though the landlords did not form the committee in response to Penn's recent construction announcement, they hope to keep their product competitive. They also figure business to be good anyway as Drexel and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia increase enrollment. Committee officials hope that many landlords will follow the guidelines, even though they will not be actively enforced. "We need to have as many [landlords] as possible so that it becomes a collective decision," said Esaul Sanchez, the University's director of neighborhood initiatives, who helped start the committee. "The whole idea is that the landlords agree on it." Prior to the landlords' closed-door discussion of their proposed sanitation standards, Penn OCL Director Mihaela Farcas introduced a draft of new policies and guidelines for the office, which provides students looking to move off campus with information on landlords and on properties. Although part of the policy is still being reviewed by lawyers, Farcas said it will give extra promotion to good landlords while removing landlords with bad reputations from OCL's list. College senior Hillary Aisenstein also addressed the group, explaining how a student-run landlord survey will affect them. She also passed out surveys which the landlords are able to fill out about their own properties.