PROVIDENCE – A Superior Court judge has struck down Narragansett’s enforcement of an ordinance limiting the number of unrelated people living together to four as ambiguous and overly vague in the latest chapter in the town’s decades’ long battle to control college rentals.
Judge Jeffrey Lanphear this week declared the ordinance unconstitutional , resulting in arbitrary enforcement against landlords, including John M. and Sandra L. Rainaldi, who sued the town last year.
“The use of ‘unrelated’ and ‘family’ within the Four Unrelated Ordinance are ambiguous. This results in confusion for ordinary landlords and renters in Narragansett regarding what household formulations are prohibited,” Lanphear wrote. “Thus, the Four Unrelated Ordinance resulted in arbitrary enforcement against Appellants.”…