Moorpark Resolution Angers Real Estate Agents : Overcrowding: The council urges brokers to refrain from marketing houses to more than one family.

Over the objections of a councilman whose wife was accused of the practice, the Moorpark City Council has passed a resolution urging area real estate agents to refrain from marketing single-family houses to more than one family.

The four councilmen who voted for the resolution said it was just a step in their efforts to control chronic overcrowding, particularly in the city’s downtown area.

But representatives of the local real estate industry characterized the action as an unwelcome and meaningless intrusion into their practices, and one that promotes discrimination.

“I can’t ask for someone’s family tree when someone comes to me and wants to write an offer,” real estate broker Emily Irelan told the council. “If there are violations that are occurring, then it seems code enforcement should handle those.”

Critics of the resolution found an ally in Councilman Bernardo Perez, whose wife, Victoria, is one of Irelan’s agents.

Earlier in the meeting, community activist Cynthia Hubbard spoke in support of the resolution and told the council, “One of your wives practices that sales technique.”

Bernardo Perez responded, “We all know who that is, it’s my wife, Victoria. To accuse her of unfair business practices is totally wrong and totally unfair.”

Perez went on to assail the resolution, saying it would have no effect on the city’s overcrowding problems. Perez said the city should continue to work on ordinances to combat the problem instead of passing a document that amounted to unwelcome advice.

“We can accomplish more by other means,” Perez said. “I won’t support it.”

Harvey Gandel, president of the Simi Valley-Moorpark Board of Realtors, criticized the action before the meeting, saying it was flawed because it did not define “single family,” the concept upon which it was based.

“What are you going to do, throw grandma out into the street?” Gandel said. “What do you do with Uncle Willie, wait until a garbage truck comes and shoot his wheelchair out in front of it?”

Gandel added that the city should worry more about providing affordable housing for its residents than clamping down on real estate agents and brokers. Council members agreed in the meeting that providing affordable housing must be part of any overcrowding initiative.

“This resolution doesn’t attempt to define ‘family,’ ” Councilman Scott Montgomery said. “It recognizes the mutual responsibilities the city and real estate agents have to maintain the wellness of our community. . . . We’re just asking for help.”

The council, except for Perez, agreed.

“The focus here is trying to mitigate the overcrowding problem in the city,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “This is an attempt to get some support from the real estate agents with a problem that we have.”

The resolution was changed before its adoption, and one inflammatory passage was removed after Perez questioned it and other council members agreed that it had no basis.

The deleted passage read: “Whereas the city believes that there may be real estate agents who are fostering the use of single-family homes as multiple-family dwellings in their zealous pursuit to please clients.”

Lawrason called the clause “outrageous” after Perez questioned it, and said after the meeting that the city would continue to consider ordinances to address its overcrowding.

Thousand Oaks in March adopted an ordinance that forces landlords to apply for city permits if they intend to rent their houses to four or more adults. The local law, which went into effect last month, already has prompted 130 separate complaints of overcrowding.