The State College Borough has rediscovered an old ordinance.

The ordinance, on the books since 1979, limits the number of unrelated people living in a single-family or duplex dwelling to three. The previous limit was five.

For the last 12 years, the ordinance has gone mostly unenforced. But in October, inspectors from the Centre Region Council of Governments began an intensive inspection of rental units in the borough to enforce the occupancy ordinance and other health and safety requirements.

The occupancy of apartments and town houses in the borough are regulated by the size of the unit and are not affected by the ordinance.

Since October, the inspectors have examined about 200 rental units, finding 27 occupancy violations, said Herman Slaybaugh, borough zoning officer. The inspection program plans to check about 1,000 more rental units.

The State College Borough Council approved the inspections partly in response to complaints from neighborhood activists about the increase of students living in certain borough neighborhoods. Those activists claimed that students cause neighborhood deterioration and lower property values.

Council President R. Thomas Berner said many residents blame student renters for vandalism, loud parties, alcohol abuse and abusive behavior.

Also, the increase of students living in the borough, along with a decrease in the amount of wage earners, cuts the borough's tax base because revenues mostly come from income taxes and not property taxes, Berner said.

James Deeslie, co-president of the Highlands Civic Association, said he's pleased with the inspection program so far.

"The law's been on the books for years. I'm glad it's being enforced," Deeslie said.

Of the 27 violations, three owners have been issued citations, while the others have either abated the situation by decreasing their units' occupancy or appealed their cases, claiming that if they rented their properties before 1979 they can still rent to five unrelated people, Slaybaugh said.

So far, Slaybaugh has investigated 12 of these claims, upholding 10 and rejecting two. Slaybaugh predicted increased litigation in the next year, saying about four or five disputes regarding the status of a dwelling's occupancy limit will arise in the next five months. Before the inspection program, about one dispute a year came up, he added.

Either the owner or the tenants can be cited for the ordinance violation, and the fine can be no more than $500 a day, said Carl Hess, borough planning director.

The limit is designed to maintain a low density of residents in "family- oriented" neighborhoods, Hess said. But there is no limit for related residents in a unit.

"No court in the world would let you regulate the number of children allowed in a household," Hess said.

In fact, the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that an occupancy limit on a nuclear family was unconstitutional and a limit that excluded uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents was unconstitutional as well.

According to the borough's occupancy ordinance, a person is considered "related" by blood, marriage or adoption, and a first cousin is the most remote blood relative allowed, Hess said.

But the borough's occupancy limit on unrelated people is constitutional, according to the 1974 Supreme Court decision Village of Belle Terre vs. Boraas, which upheld a similar ordinance with a limit of two unrelated people. Ironically, the owners in that case rented a house to six college students.

The Court ruled that the ordinance was rationally related to promoting "family values, youth values and the blessings of quiet seclusion and clean air."

Recently retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented, claiming the town discriminated against unrelated people.

"The town has, in effect, acted to fence out those individuals whose choice of lifestyle differs from that of its current residents," Marshall wrote.

The borough's occupancy ordinance has the effect of excluding students from certain neighborhoods, but it is not a concerted effort to exclude students, said Nichol Barlett, president of the Organization for Town Independent Students.

Although the national standard is five, Barlett said she supports the limit at three. But that limit decreases the availability of alternative off-campus housing for students who don't want to live in high-rises, she added.

Barlett said she blames student apathy about the ordinance for this situation.

Slaybaugh said the limit of three is an arbitrary number. But the theory behind that number is that with only three in a house, "the number of cars, the amount of traffic in and out of neighborhoods, and the wear and tear on houses can be maintained," Slaybaugh said.

"It's an intuitive theory," Slaybaugh said. "No one can prove lower density directly correlates with single family lifestyles. But it's not a bad theory."

Marshall countered this theory in Belle Terre, stating that occupancy ordinances that limit residency of only unrelated people reach "beyond the control of the use of land or the density of population," and "regulate the way people choose to associate with each other within the privacy of their own homes."