Orange City Council Spikes Plan to Tax Apartment Owners

Citing bad economic times, the City Council this week withdrew plans to pass a tax on apartment owners.

A business license fee would have required owners of buildings with four or more units to pay $25 annually plus $5 for each additional unit. Orange is the only city in the county that does not charge apartment owners such a fee, officials said.

“We felt the timing simply wasn’t right at this time,” Councilman William G. Steiner said, citing high vacancy rates and falling rents. “Business owners really don’t need the additional burden of a license fee.”

The fee was to be one of several steps to address overcrowding in the city. It would have raised $80,000 per year, which could have been used to rehabilitate neighborhoods where overcrowding has caused sanitation, health, safety and other problems, city officials said.

By requiring owners to apply for the license, the city also planned to establish a comprehensive data base on owners, number of rental units, range of rents and affordable housing.

Apartment owners had complained that the city should not use a tax to help control overcrowding and said the fee should be required for apartment buildings of all sizes.