The Carbondale City Council extensively debated a 50‑page draft ordinance that would reorganize and expand local rules on housing condition, landlord‑tenant obligations and the city’s rental‑housing program. After more than an hour of council and public comment, the council agreed to delay a final vote and to direct staff to convene additional stakeholder meetings with landlords and tenants before returning with revised language.

City staff introduced Item 8.1 as an amendment to Title 4, Chapter 4 of the Carbondale Revised Code addressing housing condition, landlord‑tenant relationships and the city’s rental registration program. Staff said an 11‑member working committee had been authorized previously but that the city received few letters of interest and moved forward with a staff rewrite to meet council concerns.

Councilmember Ry Sanders said, "I believe that this 50 page ordinance is a little too much to digest tonight to approve it. So I'm I would like to postpone it until, another time." Councilmember Gilman pushed back, urging action to address long‑standing housing problems, and said, "Ultimately, we have to do something, and we're going to move forward regulating, landlording in Carbondale. That's just like going to happen." Councilmembers debated committee size, public notice and whether more targeted outreach could recruit tenant representatives.

Several technical issues surfaced in council discussion: security deposit timelines (several provisions mirror state law requiring return within set periods), tenant and landlord access notice windows, the use and assessment of “fair rental value,” responsibility for infestations in multiunit buildings, and how to treat contract‑for‑deed arrangements used in some transactions. Councilmember Lowes discussed options for addressing contract‑for‑deed conversions and said one approach would be to exempt such properties only when they strictly comply with state statute or are structured so foreclosure — not eviction — is the remedy.

City counsel (Mr. Snyder) told the council some timelines in the draft are taken directly from state statute and said that was intended to make enforcement easier for courts. He also explained the rationale for requiring landlords to notify tenants of property tax delinquency in some cases as both a disclosure and an enforcement lever for future licensing actions.

Public comment included tenants and housing advocates asking the council to adopt protections and not delay indefinitely. Connor Sullivan (tenant advocate) urged the council to schedule a vote “within the next month,” while Adam Ashby of Southern Illinois DSA said his group had collected more than 150 tenant signatures supporting the amendments. Multiple local landlords urged the council to coordinate with existing state licensing and mortgage rules and warned the draft could create unintended legal conflicts; Greg Holthouse of SSI Property Management cited federal mortgage and SAFE Act rules and asked for more time to reconcile state and federal requirements.

After public comment, councilmembers agreed to organize additional stakeholder meetings, coordinate availability for both daytime and evening sessions to increase tenant participation, and to collect contact information from interested landlords and tenants. Staff agreed to convene follow‑up meetings and to work with applicants who had sought appointment to the originally proposed committee. At the end of the discussion one councilmember proposed bringing a revised draft back for discussion on Feb. 11; staff later suggested end of February with potential action in March to allow time to incorporate stakeholder input and to schedule multiple outreach sessions.

No final ordinance vote was taken at the Jan. 13 meeting; the matter was left pending with staff direction to gather additional input and return with a revised draft.