Billing property owners for "disorderly houses" and regulating student density are some solutions to the housing problem that the State College Planning Commission will discuss for the next two months.

The commission met last night to get opinions about the housing issue by inviting four non-voting representatives. The commission and the representatives will meet once a month in February and March to draft an approach to the problem.

If the State College Borough Council likes the conceptual approach, the commission wants to work out a practical plan before the spring semester ends and students leave, chairman Peter Everett said.

Representatives include Undergraduate Student Government President Mike King, Vice President for University Finances Gary Schultz, Centre Region Residential Owners Association President Ginny Chuba and Coalition of State College Neighborhood Associations representative Rae Chambers.

Schultz was not present last night because he attended a University Board of Trustees meeting held at the same time. He will attend future meetings, Everett said.

One idea discussed was a "disorderly house" ordinance which would bill property owners for repeated use of municipal services such as the police and fire departments. The actual violators would be prosecuted separately, Borough Solicitor Terry Williams said.

Here's how the ordinance would work:

A police officer repeatedly goes to a house because neighbors call and complain about the noise. The borough notifies the property owner that if the problem continues, it will bill the landlord for the cost of having the police respond.

Police charge the tenants separately.

All those at the meeting either favor or are opened-minded to the "disorderly house" proposal except Chuba, who represents landlords and managers.

Other new solutions involve limiting student density.

-- The borough could establish code requirements for rental housing such as room sizes, number of bathrooms or amount of parking.

-- The borough could regulate density by a block-face concept -- all houses facing the same way on a street.

-- Owners could contract with each other not to rent to students, but this agreement would be private and would not involve the borough.

Chambers, who represents area residents, wants to create separate regulations for student renters.

She distributed a handout and presented a diagram of her neighborhood where she said she can hear 81 people from her bedroom window.

"What it's been like for me is that every night I must get on the phone and ask for help,' " Chambers said. "I call this the war zone."

Students as a class are not protected by the federal or state governments. As a result, some municipalities have special regulations that apply only to student renters and not the general population, Williams said.

In Villanova, student renters must be a quarter mile apart, he said.

Except for Chambers, all those at the meeting oppose regulations which treat students differently, especially student representative King.

"I think that the courts will realize that these are veiled attempts at discrimination," King said. "This is not part of a democratic country."

"We're kind of carving new ground here," Everett said. "A lot of college towns have to deal with this. There's such a huge (housing) demand adjacent to universities for student housing, but we want residents and employees to live there too.