MOORPARK : Single-Family Home Resolution Pending

Continuing its effort to reduce the number of overcrowded homes in the city, the Moorpark City Council is considering a resolution urging area realtors not to sell or lease single-family homes to more than one family.

Council members asked staff to draft such a resolution while discussing the city’s longstanding problems with crowding at a meeting earlier this month. No date has been set to debate the merits of a resolution, which would be distributed to local agents and brokers if adopted by the council.

Mayor Paul Lawrason said Tuesday that the proposed resolution would ask realtors to help limit the number of occupants in houses by not deliberately marketing single-family homes to multiple buyers.

The council, Lawrason said, wants to inform real estate agents that multiple ownership sales could lead to more than the desired number of residents in houses. “We are keenly aware of overcrowding in our city and we are trying to reduce it,” he said.

But Bob Ely, a longtime real estate broker who operates an office in Moorpark, said that state and federal anti-discrimination laws would preclude a real estate agent from steering buyers away from homes based on suggestions from council members.

“You can’t refrain from selling to anybody, that is the law, federal, state. You just can’t discriminate,” Ely said. “If the City Council wanted me to pass such information on to prospective buyers, I have no problem passing that on to people. But I can’t steer anybody away from buying.”

Councilman Scott Montgomery said he is concerned that real estate agents might deliberately direct several families into purchasing or leasing single-family homes. But he said he has no evidence that such a practice has occurred. He said the resolution would only seek “voluntary cooperation” from agents selling a home to several families. “It’s inappropriate in a single-family zone.”

Councilman Bernardo Perez, whose wife Vicki is a realtor, said the city may be out of line in trying to influence who buys houses within city limits.