www.roanoke.com

Big university towns such as Blacksburg share at least one significant problem with Roanoke: blighted rental houses and ill-behaved tenants that can drag down and destabilize neighborhoods.

A few years ago, on a tour of homes that had been turned into student rentals, Blacksburg Town Council members saw more than enough to prompt action, including a code-compliance rate of less than 15 percent. They started a townwide rental inspection program in 1999 that required annual registration of properties and inspections every three years. Blacksburg homeowners who had watched dilapidated, overcrowded properties, loud student parties and obnoxious drunks draw ever nearer were mostly happy. Student behavior was beyond the control of any inspection, but at least properties would be kept presentable. And if the cost of compliance cut profits, it might deter new rental conversions.

Some landlords, of course, were not happy, though code compliance is mandatory regardless of inspections. When business interests aren't happy, the General Assembly isn't happy. Lawmakers passed legislation limiting inspections to aging or obviously deteriorating neighborhoods, eliminated yearly registration and required that apartments be inspected, too.

Blacksburg's inspector now can keep watch over far fewer neighborhoods, but has a much greater workload with the addition of apartments. The goal of keeping blight from arising in the first place is effectively quashed.

Most landlords are responsible. Most Virginia Tech students are not drunken louts. But the town has enough bad apples to pose a real threat when they take over houses in traditional neighborhoods.

The General Assembly stood up for business and property rights. Yet those were not the only financial interests at stake. Blight hurts homeowners' property values. As residents are pushed out of once-stable, economically efficient neighborhoods, pressure grows for wasteful, revenue-draining sprawl.

Blacksburg will pay for Richmond's decision while landlords profit.