Committee considers bill to codify interior housing standards and loosen some occupancy rules for larger families

A St. Louis Board of Aldermen committee on housing reviewed Board Bill 18, a proposal to codify interior housing inspection standards and to change occupancy rules to better accommodate larger and multigenerational families.

The measure would move interior safety requirements that had been placed in Exhibit A of an earlier rental-registry ordinance into the text of the city's housing conservation code and would alter occupancy definitions: bedrooms would still have a 70-square-foot minimum, the first occupant would retain a 150-square-foot standard, the requirement that a main (master) bedroom be the largest room would be removed, the two-person limit for a main bedroom would be eliminated, and children under age 6 would not count toward occupancy totals.

Sponsor Alderman Velasquez said the bill “codifies those” interior requirements so inspectors and the public would not have to refer repeatedly to an exhibit. Casey Milberg of the mayor’s office told the committee the measure “corrects that and does place those within the code,” and said the…