SAN MARCOS - Hoping to curb problems associated with groups of college students living so-called "mini-dorms," the City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a "rooming house" ordinance that would regulate multiple leases in what are traditionally single-family homes.

City Attorney Helen Holmes Peak said Tuesday there are between 15 and 20 San Marcos homes occupied by college students who trigger complaints about traffic, trash, parking and noise.

San Marcos is home to a 9,000-student California State University campus as well as Palomar College, both of which are expected to expand the city's student population to more than 30,000 over the next two decades.

"Many universities throughout the state either cannot or will not provide housing for their students … and students reside off campus," Peak told the council.

In San Diego, two entrepreneurial San Diego State University graduates created more than 100 mini-dorms around their alma mater, resulting in neighborhood complaints, protests and two proposed ordinances the San Diego City Council is scheduled to consider next week.

Peak said the portions of the San Marcos ordinance are nearly identical to San Diego's draft legislation.

Some housing ordinances walk a fine constitutional line. In 1980, the California Supreme Court struck down Santa Barbara's attempt to prevent a 12-member "alternative family" from living in a home because the residents were not related by blood, marriage or adoption.

The ordinance proposed for San Marcos is based in part on one from Lompoc, Calif., that received the California attorney general's blessing in 2003. Peak said she believes the San Marcos version would hold up in court.

Councilman Mike Preston, who cast the only vote against the ordinance, said he'd prefer to have the attorney general specifically weigh in on the San Marcos proposal.

"This is getting a bit onerous to people who lease these things out to make a living," Preston said. "I think this does some bad things to property rights."

Mayor Jim Desmond said homeowners do not have a right to run a business in an area zoned for single-family living and that three leases for space in one home constitute a commercial enterprise.

The San Marcos ordinance would define rooming houses as those with "three or more bedrooms rented to three or more individuals under three or more contracts," limit where rooming houses may be established and place permitting and management requirements on the homes.

Violators face potentially hefty fines under either a civil process or enforcement in the criminal justice system. The ordinance is written to be retroactive, with penalties starting at $100 per day and escalating to $1,000 per day, but officials said compliance - not collection - is the goal of the ordinance.

Coronado Ranch resident Steve Slane said not all student tenants in his townhouse complex are as considerate as the six young women who used to share three bedrooms in a unit next to him. The complex has had to pay $90,000 for security fees because of unruly neighbors, he said. Slane said he believes absentee owners who lease their property to young people contribute to the problem.

"I wind up managing their tenants' bad behavior," he said.

Council members said cooperation with the colleges would be part of an ongoing process to address student housing issues.

"We can't just say, 'Hey, we want to be a college town' and say 'You can't live here,' or 'You have to pay very high rents because of the limited amount of leases,'" Preston said.

- Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.