A federal appeals court has upheld a previous federal ruling dismissing a lawsuit challenging Shawnee's controversial "co-living ban."
On Monday, the Tenth District of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the September 2023 dismissal by the federal district court in Kansas City, Kansas, attesting that the city's ordinance, which restricts how many unrelated people can live in a single-family home, violated their constitutional rights.
The ruling means the city's rule, which says no more than three unrelated people can live in the same dwelling, stands.
The original lawsuit was filed in May 2023 by Shawnee resident Val French and Prairie Village-based property management company HomeRoom, Inc., in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas.
Nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the plaintiffs, argued that high housing costs are causing more people to share homes and that the latest court ruling takes that option away.
"(The decision is) deeply disappointing, especially in the middle of a housing affordability crisis," lead attorney David Deerson said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
The city of Shawnee declined to comment on the ruling. City spokesperson Doug Donahoo told the Post the city was still evaluating the court's decision.
The lawsuit was in response to the city's co-living ban
In April 2022, the Shawnee City Council voted 7-0 to adopt the ordinance, which effectively limited the number of unrelated people who can live together in a single living space to three.
The rule also prevents companies, like HomeRoom, or private residents from buying residential properties and using them for room-by-room rentals unless the occupants are related.
The city's co-living ban immediately received backlash, including an online petition signed by more than 450 people. Some community members also protested outside Shawnee City Hall.
At the time it adopted the rule, Shawnee was believed to be the first municipality in the Kansas City metro to adjust its city code in order to restrict such shared room, or co-living, rental arrangements.
The practice of co-living has grown in popularity in recent years in the U.S. as housing costs have increased, according to CNBC.
Shawnee's co-living ban drew national scrutiny and criticism from housing advocates, including the prominent group KC Tenants.
The lawsuit argued the city exceeded its authority
In the original lawsuit, HomeRoom Inc. and French argued Shawnee exceeded its authority to decide zoning, land-use intensity, occupancy and other building codes by passing a rule that "regulates land users," not the land itself.
"[I]t regulates only people. Whether a home is in violation of the ordinance depends on one factor alone: the identity and relationship of the people who live there," the complaint stated.
The plaintiffs were not seeking any monetary damages but instead wanted the court to stop the city from enforcing the ordinance.
In her dismissal of the lawsuit, federal Judge Holly Teeter agreed with the city's reasoning that HomeRoom is a corporate entity with no constitutionally protected right of intimate association and that it can't assert the rights of current and future tenants who are unrelated to each other.
The court cited a previous case in its decision
Teeter's earlier ruling used the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 1974 in the case of Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas as precedent.
That ruling upheld the constitutionality of a residential zoning ordinance that limited the number of unrelated individuals who may inhabit a dwelling.
Deerson previously framed the Belle Terre case as "outdated" in an interview with the Post, but the latest court of appeals decision agreed with Teeter's rationale for using it.
"Ms. French certainly has 'a right to argue for a change in the law, but Belle Terre remains good law and is binding authority' on the district court and this court," the Tenth District Appeals Court's ruling stated.
What's next
HomeRoom Inc. and French's attorneys say they plan to file a cert petition, seeking review by the U.S. Supreme Court
"The case raises major constitutional questions about the right to form a household and choose with whom to live," they said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
Reaching the Supreme Court is an extremely high bar. The high court receives thousands of petitions for review each year, and studies show the court typically hears about 1% of them.
This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.
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