U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel on January 30, 2023 heard arguments for and against the City of St. Paul’s new rent control law. In a Star Tribune article covering the case, Anthony Ostlund shareholder Joseph Anthony was quoted arguing on behalf of our clients—two large apartment building owners—that the rent control law violates contractual and property rights as well as constitutional due process. In a federal lawsuit filed in June, Mr. Anthony asked the court to stop the city from enforcing its ordinance, which places a 3% limit on annual rent increases at residential properties, with some exceptions.
From the Star Tribune article by Katie Galioto:
. . . the council substantially amended the law to exempt new housing construction and affordable units from the rent cap. Joseph Anthony, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued the changes force “certain landlords, alone, to bear public burdens, which in all fairness and justice should be borne by the public as a whole.”
“They added conditions which made it arbitrary and discriminatory and still didn’t come up with a plan that addressed the needs they said they need to address,” Anthony said. He listed a loss of property value and the inability to do short-term leases as being among the harms allegedly suffered by his clients.
Read the full article on the Star Tribune site here or view a PDF here.
