A few years back, a Philadelphia-area developer who graduated from Franklin & Marshall asked the Lancaster Zoning Hearing Board for something that sounded simple. He wanted to house one student per bedroom in a half dozen properties near campus, mostly five-bedroom houses on streets like Nevin Street and College Avenue. Do the math and that's roughly two dozen students across six houses, filling every bedroom the way any landlord would want to. The Zoning Hearing Board had to weigh in because the houses sat in residential zones that only allow two or three unrelated people to share a dwelling. Neighbors packed a Planning Commission meeting to oppose it, worried about parking and noise. A former mayor showed up to speak against the variance himself.

That fight is the clearest illustration of a rule that still governs College Park today, and it's the rule most investors never check before they write an offer on a rowhome three blocks from campus.

The Number That Isn't On The Listing

Lancaster's zoning code defines who can legally share a house, and the definition has nothing to do with square footage or bedroom count. A "family," under the code, tops out around two unrelated people living together as a single household. A separate category called a "nonfamily unit" allows three unrelated people. There's a fourth-person allowance, but it only applies inside the college's own campus zoning district, for dormitory-style housing that Franklin & Marshall operates or contracts directly. It does not apply to a privately owned rowhome on a residential street, no matter how close that rowhome sits to Old Main.

So a five-bedroom house near campus, the kind that shows up in College Park listings with language about walking distance to F&M and Buchanan Park, cannot legally be rented to five unrelated students without a variance from the Zoning Hearing Board. That's exactly the approval the Philadelphia developer had to seek, house by house, and exactly what the neighborhood organized to fight.

For an investor, this changes the underwriting. A bedroom count on a listing sheet is not the same as a legal occupancy count. Before you price out rent-by-the-room income on a College Park multi-bedroom property, the question isn't how many bedrooms the house has. It's how many unrelated people the city will let you put in it, and whether that number matches the rent roll you're building your offer around.

The Airbnb Assumption

The second assumption worth testing is short-term rental income. College Park sits close enough to downtown Lancaster and campus events that the Airbnb math looks tempting on paper. The zoning reality is narrower than that math suggests.

Lancaster City stopped new short-term rentals from spreading into residential zones back in 2022. What's allowed by right in the city's R3 and R4 residential zones, which cover most of College Park's rowhomes and small multi-unit buildings, is a "homestay": an owner-occupied unit where the property owner lives on site and rents out no more than two bedrooms. A full short-term rental, the kind where nobody lives in the unit and guests have the whole place to themselves, is treated as a commercial use and restricted to the city's mixed-use and commercial districts, not standard residential blocks. The only residential exception is a narrow one: units that were already operating as short-term rentals in R3 or R4 zones before April 11, 2022, and registered with the city by May 10, 2022, were allowed to keep going.

The city loosened the rules again in 2023, but only for buildings with a ground-floor storefront and one or two apartments above it. A three-unit building or a straight residential rowhome doesn't qualify.

The zoning code was written to prevent the exact business model that makes a College Park listing look attractive on an investor forum.

If you're eyeing a rowhome for full short-term rental income, the first call to make isn't to a property manager. It's to the city's zoning office to confirm which district the parcel sits in and whether it qualifies as a homestay, a grandfathered unit, or neither.

The Paint You Can't See In Photos

The third piece of friction shows up after closing, not before it. Since January 2023, Lancaster City has required Lead-Safe Certification for every residential rental property built before 1978, not just units rented to families with young children. That certification has to be renewed every two years, and a new owner has 45 days to obtain it if the property doesn't already carry a current one.

This matters more in College Park than almost anywhere else in the city. Neighborhood housing data puts more than four out of five homes here as built before 1939, decades before lead paint was phased out of residential use. That means the certification isn't a formality for a handful of older buildings. It's a near-universal cost of doing business if you're buying to rent in this neighborhood, and it's worth pricing into your offer the same way you'd price a roof or a furnace.

What Actually Transfers When You Buy

Rental licenses in Lancaster City can transfer to a new owner at the time of sale, which sounds like a convenience. In practice it means you inherit whatever compliance state the property is already in, good or bad. A "fully tenant occupied" listing, the kind you'll see advertised around College Avenue and Columbia Avenue as a turnkey investment, still needs its own valid rental license, a current Lead-Safe Certification if built before 1978, and confirmation that the unit count and occupancy match what the zoning code allows for that address.

None of that shows up in a rent roll. It shows up in a title search, a call to the city's Bureau of Property Maintenance and Housing Inspections, and a look at the property's zoning district before you sign anything.

A Bill Worth Watching, Not Betting On

There's a wrinkle worth knowing about even if it doesn't change anything yet. A bill introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature, House Bill 2109, would bar cities from using zoning to cap the number of unrelated people who can share a home. It's modeled in part on a Washington state law from 2024 and has drawn support from a handful of state legislators. As of early 2026 it hadn't become law, and Lancaster's occupancy rules were still fully in effect.

If it passes, it would reshape the math on every College Park property built for room-by-room rental. Until it does, the current occupancy caps are what your offer needs to be built around, not what a future legislative session might allow.

Before You Write An Offer

A short list worth working through before you get attached to a property's rental math:

1. Call the city's zoning office and confirm the parcel's zoning district and its current occupancy limit for unrelated tenants.
2. Ask whether the property has an active rental license and whether it's transferable without a new inspection.
3. Check the year built. If it's before 1978, budget for Lead-Safe Certification and the 45-day window to get it if it lapses.
4. If short-term rental income is part of your plan, get written confirmation of homestay eligibility or grandfathered status before you count on that income in your numbers.

None of this is complicated once you know to ask. It's just rarely on the checklist buyers bring with them when a listing photo shows a porch three blocks from campus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy a College Park rowhome and rent it to four unrelated students? Not without a zoning variance. The city's default occupancy limit for unrelated people in a residential dwelling is two to three, depending on how the household is structured. Four unrelated occupants is allowed only inside the college's own campus zoning district for its own housing.

If I buy a tenant-occupied multi-unit building, does the rental license just carry over? The license itself can transfer, but you're responsible for making sure the property is actually in compliance, including a valid Lead-Safe Certification if the building predates 1978 and confirmation that unit counts match what's on file with the city.

Is short-term rental income realistic for a College Park property? Only if the property already operated legally as a short-term rental before April 2022 and was registered by May 2022, or if it sits in one of the city's commercial or mixed-use zones. A standard rowhome in the neighborhood's residential zones is limited to an owner-occupied homestay renting no more than two bedrooms.

College Park's appeal to investors is real. The walkability, the tree cover, the proximity to campus and to downtown all hold up. What doesn't hold up automatically is the income model some buyers assume comes with it. If you're weighing a rental purchase in this neighborhood or anywhere else in Lancaster County, Stephanie Frysinger can walk through the zoning, licensing, and compliance picture on a specific property before you write an offer. Schedule your free consultation and get the numbers right before they're your problem to fix.